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NEW YORK, Oct 1 (Reuters) - U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers began a strike on Tuesday, their first large-scale stoppage in nearly 50 years, halting the flow of about half the nation's ocean shipping after negotiations for a new labor contract broke down over wages.The strike blocks everything from food to automobile shipments across dozens of ports from Maine to Texas, in a disruption analysts warned will cost the economy billions of dollars a day, threaten jobs and potentially stoke inflation.The International Longshoremen's Association union, which represents 45,000 port workers, had been negotiating with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) employer group for a new six-year contract ahead of a midnight Monday deadline.The ILA said in a statement on Tuesday it shut down all ports from Maine to Texas at 12:01 a.m. ET (0401 GMT) after rejecting USMX's final proposal, adding the offer fell "far short of the demands of its members to ratify a new contract".
