The strike impacts 36 ports from Maine to Texas, which means those ports will likely shut down operations until the dockworkers return.

Dockworkers began picketing at the Port of Philadelphia early Tuesday after the International Longshoremen's Association announced the union would go on strike​.

By Doyinsola Oladipo and David Shepardson NEW YORK (Reuters) -Dockworkers on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast began a strike early on Tuesday, their first large-scale stoppage in nearly 50 years, halting the flow of about half the nation's ocean shipping after negotiations for a new labor contract broke down over wages.