Democratic leaders in the Senate and the Maryland Statehouse have come up with plans to help pay port workers’ salaries.
A cargo ship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on Tuesday, and it fell apart. It will help “put food on the table” for people and pay the port workers’ salaries.
The head of the Maryland Senate, Bill Ferguson, said, “The human cost of the lives lost yesterday is overwhelming and tragic.” There are too many people who will lose their jobs and their sense of security in the coming days. Ferguson says that more than 15,000 people depend on the Port of Baltimore.
A leader from the International Longshoremen’s Association in Baltimore, Scott Cowan, talked about how the event is hurting his workers and how he wants to help them. “Approximately 2,400 members of the ILA will soon be without work. The first thing that’s on my mind is getting them jobs, feeding their families, and putting food on the table.
The port is the ninth largest in the US, and cars, car parts, and coal are the main things that come through it. The fall not only affects how goods are distributed, but it also changes traffic and workers’ pay.
Six people were killed when the ship sank and the bridge gave way. “Seeing what is going on hurts my heart.” A coworker of the missing workers, Jesús Campos, said, “We are people, and they are my folks.”
