Big business is upping the pressure on President Joe Biden to intervene in a dockworkers strike set to begin Tuesday that could shut down ports handling more than half of all U.S. trade and potentially lead to an increase in the cost of consumer goods.

The White House says it won’t step in to force dockworkers back on the job, and that impacts to America’s vital goods will be minimal for now.

Several leading business groups are urging President Biden to use his authority under the Taft-Hartley Act to restore operations at ports affected by the dockworkers strike.

Strike – first by port workers on US east coast since 1977 – threatens to shut down ports from Maine to Texas

Republican lawmakers are pushing for President Joe Biden to reverse his stance against intervening in a dockworkers strike expected to stymie supply chains and raise prices, by invoking his executive powers.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday called for those on both sides of a port worker strike to return to the bargaining table as U.S. ports brace

President Biden called for striking port workers to get an increase in wages, hours after tens of thousands of longshoremen at ports along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico walked off the job. The United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) failed to reach an agreement by the midnight deadline,