Sorry, but no.
1) They didn't care about the timing. The guy organizing this strike is loud and proud about it. Literally bragging about crippling our economy and causing people to lose their jobs. He's a wannabe mob boss scumbag, nothing more.
2) It definitely is. They're making a very, VERY good wage as it is and they want a 77% price increase? How about a big, fat N-O. What makes them higher than their country that they get to make bank while everyone else is struggling to buy groceries? And as for automation, this bullcrap is only going to cost them in the long run. People weren't thinking about automation too much before this. Now, countless people are calling for it because these selfish jackwagons want more money at the expense of the entire freaking country. Heck, I'm not a fan of AI, nor do I like the idea of getting rid of human jobs, but after this? Nah, fully automate the ports and bring our industries back to our shores. Solves the problem overnight while simultaneously telling these whackos to get bent.
3) We're a first world country. The way you fall to third world status is by pretending as if "first world problems" aren't important to, well, a first world country. Moreover, alongside these "first world problems", we see all sorts of crucial things as well. Food, necessities, AID FOR PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM A DEVASTATING HURRICANE.
Sorry for the caps, I'm just beyond ticked off at these idiots and while I'm not trying to make this personal with you, I just can't really respect the hustle of defending these morons. Unless the issue is resolved VERY quickly, millions upon millions of innocent people will be negatively impacted, and the economy will grow even worse than it already is (and it's BAD; when people can barely afford to eat, that's not a good sign). All so these -- and I'm struggling not to cuss -- morons can play their little mafia LARP for a few weeks and hope for their 77% wage increase at the expense of the rest of America.
I hope they lose their jobs to the automation that they're using as an excuse to extort the country. It'd serve them right and I will laugh myself to death when it happens, laying in my casket with a grin on my face.
No mercy for self-centered people who demand prosperity at the cost of the rest of their country in the midst of an economic and humanitarian aid crisis. None at all.