Administration officials have delivered a similar message to the union this week.
The White House is trying to encourage the alliance, which represents port operators and shipping carriers, to reach what both sides would consider to be a fair agreement with the International Longshoremen's Association. There is the possibility of a strike once the contract lapses, with unionized workers objecting to the addition of new technologies to U.S. ports that they say could ultimately cause job losses.
President Joe Biden's team does not see a potential strike as necessarily disruptive to the economy in the short term, since retail inventories have increased as companies planned for the contract dispute. The federal government also has additional tools to monitor supply chains that it lacked during the COVID-19 pandemic when long wait times at ports and higher shipping costs pushed up inflation.