A strike involving port workers across the east coast impacted Port Tampa Bay Tuesday, when dozens of longshoremen walked off the job and onto the picket line.

The 45,000 dockworkers who went on strike Tuesday for the first time in decades at 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas may wield the upper hand in their standoff with port operators over wages and the use of automation.

East and Gulf Coast ports that may be impacted by the strike handle half of the seaborne imports to the U.S. A prolonged work stoppage would be catastrophic warn experts and officials.