The port generates $3 billion in personal income annually, Senate President Bill Ferguson, a South Baltimore Democrat, said Wednesday when announcing along with other leaders in the General Assembly plans for emergency legislation to offer economic relief to displaced port workers and small businesses that serve the port.

On Thursday, the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development urged anyone whose job has been affected by the bridge collapse to fill out an online form to be connected with a Career Center for assistance.

Financial assistance can’t come soon enough for Cowan.

“We need to put money in the pockets of people who are not getting a paycheck, so they can pay their bills, feed their families and take care of their daily needs,” Cowan said. “We need action now, and I’m sure it’s going to take a lot longer than now.”

Cowan said he hopes people will remember the role longshoremen played during the pandemic in getting products to consumers, when “a lot of that stuff came through the port of Baltimore.”

“Now the shoe’s on the other foot,” he said. “We worked through the pandemic when many weren’t working, and we were still getting goods to them. Now we aren’t working.”

Roland Rexha, secretary/treasurer of The Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, a maritime union with roots in Baltimore and a training school in Easton, said his members will have to make adjustments but won’t be out of work. The union, with several hundred members in the Baltimore area, represents engineers and deck officers on foreign and domestic ships.

“We’ll be able to adapt, but I worry about my brother and my sister union, the longshoremen. They’re going to be the ones hurting,” Rexha said. “If you see somebody who’s down on their luck, this is the time to try to pick each other up.”

He describes the port ecosystem as a “giant heart, and every port a chamber of that heart. If one chamber fails, every other chamber has to push harder to make up for that failure,” he said. “The impact is going to be astronomical,” slowing down the supply chain and making goods less accessible.

Local 333 officials are working to help their members on several fronts, Cowan said. They’re encouraging workers to file for unemployment, seeking relief from the union’s international arm and working to preserve health and other benefits.

It’s too soon, Cowan said, for many workers to know what’s next.

“I think it’s still sinking in, to be honest,” he said. “We’re hopeful that the channel’s going to be open quickly, and they’re going to get back to work.”

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