Boston College (4-1, 1-0 ACC) at Virginia (3-1, 1-0), Saturday, 12 p.m. (ACC Network)
BetMGM College Football Odds: Virginia by 2 1/2.
Series record: Boston College leads 7-1.
WHAT’S AT STAKE?
The Cavaliers and Eagles have been two of the most pleasant early-season surprises in the ACC. Their strong starts include winning their conference openers. Virginia hasn’t started 2-0 in league play since 2019, the year it reached the ACC title game and the Orange Bowl. Boston College hasn’t won its first two conference games since 2007 and hasn’t been 5-1 since 2008.
KEY MATCHUP
Virginia’s offensive line and Boston College’s defensive line are both coming off outstanding performances in their previous games. The Cavaliers pounded the football on the ground against Coastal Carolina, rushing for 384 yards and three scores, while the Eagles were disruptive pass rushers against Western Kentucky, recording a trio of sacks. A year ago Boston College had the edge up front, holding Virginia to two yards per rush and recorded five sacks in a 27-24 win.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Boston College: DE Donovan Ezeiruaku. The junior, who leads the nation in sacks, was a dominant force off the edge in the Eagles’ win over Western Kentucky on Saturday, posting the first three-sack game of his career. In last year’s win over Virginia, Ezeiruaku had one of Boston College’s five sacks.
Virginia: RB Xavier Brown. The junior, who missed last season due to an injury, became the first Cavaliers’ running back to rush for over 150 yards in a game since 2018. He lit up Coastal Carolina for 171 on Sept. 21, in his last outing, racking up that total on just nine carries, including a 75-yard third-quarter burst.
FACTS & FIGURES
Virginia ranks third in the 17-team ACC, averaging 195 yards rushing per game, while Boston College checks in sixth in the league in rush defense, surrendering just 101.4. … This is a matchup of the ACC’s two least penalized teams… This will be the first of two straight games in Virginia for the Eagles, who play at Virginia Tech on Oct. 17 … Boston College left guard Logan Taylor began his college career at Virginia … Virginia wide receiver Malachi Fields caught his first two touchdown receptions of the season in the win over Coastal Carolina. … Tony Elliott is 2-0 after an open date as Virginia’s coach. … Boston College hasn’t won in Charlottesville, Va., since 2017.
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Virginia running back Xavier Brown (20) runs past Coastal Carolina safety AJ Williams (7) during the first half of an NCAA college football game on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Conway, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. ports from Maine to Texas shut down this week when the union representing about 45,000 dockworkers went on strike for the first time since 1977.
Workers began walking picket lines early Tuesday near ports all along the East and Gulf coasts.
A shutdown that lasts more than a few weeks has the potential to raise prices and create shortages of goods throughout the country as the holiday shopping season — along with a tight presidential election — approaches.
There have been some signs of movement in the talks, with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, saying that both sides have moved from their initial wage offers. But on Wednesday, the alliance called on the International Longshoremen’s Union to come to the bargaining table. “We cannot agree to preconditions to return to bargaining, but we remain committed to bargaining in good faith,” the group said in a statement.
Late Wednesday night, the ILA said that Harold Daggett, its president, and other union officers, had received death threats since the strike began. The union said the threats were reported to police.
President Joe Biden told reporters Thursday that he thought progress was being made in ending the strike. Asked how much, Biden said “We’ll find out soon.”
The union is demanding significantly higher wages and a total ban on the automation of cranes, gates and container-moving trucks that are used in the loading or unloading of freight at 36 U.S. ports. Those ports handle roughly half of the nations’ cargo from ships.
The contract between the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents the ports, expired Tuesday.
The union’s opening demand was a 77% pay raise over the six-year life of the contract, with Daggett saying that it would make up for inflation and years of small raises. ILA members make a base salary of about $81,000 per year, but some can pull in over $200,000 annually with large amounts of overtime.
On Monday, before workers hit the picket lines, the alliance said it had increased its offer to 50% raises over six years, and it pledged to keep limits on automation in place from the old contract. The alliance also said its offer tripled employer contributions to retirement plans and strengthened health care options.
While any port can handle any type of goods, some ports are specialized to handle goods for a particular industry. The ports affected by the shutdown include Baltimore and Brunswick, Georgia, the top two busiest auto ports; Philadelphia, which gives priority to fruits and vegetables; and New Orleans, which handles coffee, mainly from South America and Southeast Asia, various chemicals from Mexico and North Europe, and wood products from Asia and South America.
Other major ports affected include Boston; New York/New Jersey; Norfolk, Virginia; Wilmington, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Tampa, Florida; Mobile, Alabama; and Houston.
If a strike were deemed a danger to U.S. economic health, President Joe Biden could, under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, seek a court order for an 80-day cooling-off period. This would suspend the strike.
But during an exchange with reporters on Sunday, Biden said “no” when asked if he planned to intervene.
“Because it’s collective bargaining, I don’t believe in Taft-Hartley,” Biden said.
If the strike is resolved within a few weeks, consumers probably wouldn’t notice any significant shortages or price hikes. But a work stoppage that persists for more than a month could be a different story, depending on what you're shopping for. Most holiday retail goods have already arrived from overseas, so there is a buffer. Prices on everything from fruits and vegetables to cars may head higher, at least temporarily, if it drags on.
That would be unwelcome news after snarled supply chains sent prices jetting higher at the end of the pandemic, and could be potentially damaging politically with Election Day about a month away.
Container loads of highly perishable bananas are stuck at some ports and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters Thursday that it will be hard to retrieve them due to the strike. Biden has urged shipping companies in particular to try harder to resolve the dispute, he said.
“That’s the most effective way of getting the bananas to wherever they need to go. And hopefully the shippers will come to the table,” Vilsack said. “The union will come to the table. Collective bargaining will work, and we’ll get this resolved quickly.”
Limiting the duration of this strike is the key to preventing shortages and higher prices, Vilsack said.
“Our assessment is if this lasts a couple of weeks, we’re not talking about a significant disruption,” he said. “If you get into months, then obviously that’s a different situation.”
Since the major supply chain disruption in 2021, retailers have adapted to supply chain disrupters being the new norm, said Rick Haase, owner of a mini-chain of Patina gift shops in and around the Twin Cities in Minnesota.
“The best approach for Patina has been to secure orders early and have the goods in our warehouse and back rooms to ensure we are in stock on key goods,” Haase said.
Still, housing those goods for longer can have an inflationary impact at the register because retailers will need to recoup those storage costs, or absorb them.
Jay Foreman, CEO of Basic Fun, a Boca Raton, Florida, the maker of Care Bears and Lincoln Logs, has already shifted all of the toy company's container shipments away from the East Coast to West Coast ports, primarily Los Angeles and Long Beach. That too, comes with a cost.
The maneuver added anywhere from 10% to 20% in extra costs that his company will have to absorb because Basic Fun’s prices for the next 10 months are locked in with retailers. But Foreman would consider raising prices during the second half of 2025 if the strike is prolonged.
Daniel Vasquez, who owns the import, export specialty company Dynamic Auto Movers in Miami, increased inventory, specifically for vehicles that take longer to ship, in anticipation of a strike.
He too stopped relying on one port or shipping partner and has expanded his relationship with smaller ports and shipping companies that can bypass congested areas.
Jonathan Gold, vice president of the supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, said the strike arrives with the supply network already facing challenges from Houthi attacks on commercial shipping that have essentially shut down the use of the Red Sea and Suez Canal.
Rising uncertainty over the supply chain arrives at the peak of the holiday shipping season for retailers, which traditionally runs from July through early November. Many big retailers, anticipating a strike, started shipping goods to U.S. distribution centers in June, and Gold said that the majority of those products are already in the U.S.
Yet on top of the cost of storing goods for longer, retailers will have a hard time replenishing their inventory should the strike drag on, and as Gold pointed out, carriers are already announcing surcharges on shipped containers due to potential disruptions.
Toy companies had ready diverted many shipments through Los Angeles in anticipation of a strike and inventories at stores are right now are healthy, said Greg Ahearn who leads The Toy Association, the nation’s leading toy trade group. He said Wednesday that the strike becomes more problematic with time, specifically in satisfying demand for popular toys as Christmas approaches.
As much as 60% of annual sales for toy companies occur during the current quarter, Ahearn said.
“The longer this goes on, the higher probability that toys that parents and caregivers want for their children will be scarce and with scarcity comes the potential for higher prices,” he said
AP Writers Tom Krisher, Stephen Groves and Colleen Long contributed to this report.
ILA members strike at the Bayport Container Terminal on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)
Francisco Alvarado, center, joins other ILA members during a strike at the Bayport Container Terminal on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)
Cranes remain shut down at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)
FILE - Ship to shore cranes work the container ship CMA CGM Laperouse at the Georgia Ports Authority's Port of Savannah, Sept. 29, 2021, in Savannah, Ga. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton, File)
Dockworker Meikysha Wright and others strike outside the Virginia International Gateway in Portsmouth, Va., Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)
Hundreds of longshoremen strike together outside of the Virginia International Gateway in Portsmouth, Va., Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Billy Schuerman/The Virginian-Pilot via AP)
