Business

Dockworkers in Baltimore and along the East Coast began walking picket lines Tuesday in a strike over wages and job automation that has nervous businesses and consumers hoping for a quick resolution. For the Port of Baltimore, the anxiety is particularly acute. The strike comes as the port was working to recapture shipping business it had lost during the 11 weeks the facility was mostly closed because of a catastrophic bridge collapse.

The Baltimore Business Journal has unveiled its 2024 class of 40 Under 40 honorees, spotlighting the very best of the next generation of local business leaders. This year’s honorees were chosen from nearly 300 nominations by the BBJ’s editorial staff and come from a variety of industries, from real estate and law to hospitality and cannabis.

Lonza, a healthcare manufacturing company headquartered in Switzerland, said it plans to expand its endotoxin assay production operation in Walkersville. An endotoxin assay is a laboratory test that can be used to detect the presence of contaminants like E. coli and salmonella in injectable vaccines, medical devices and other pharmaceutical products.

The International Longshoremen’s Association and its 45,000 members from Maine to Texas went on strike Tuesday after a last-minute exchange of contract offers with the U.S. Maritime Association failed to produce a contract agreement. The strike shuts down operations at the Port of Baltimore just months after federal and state agencies managed to reopen the facility that had been closed by the March 26 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge into the Patapsco River, blocking shipping channels in and out of marine terminals there.

Striking longshoremen in Baltimore are likely to continue handling cruise ships and vessels with military cargo, according to William Doyle, the former director of the Port of Baltimore. Doyle, now the CEO of Dredging Contractors of America, says he has been in contact with local leaders on both sides of the labor dispute.

Amazon, which recently resumed openings of new Fresh grocery stores after a yearlong pause, held “grand reopenings” for two of its D.C.-area stores Saturday. The redesigned Amazon Fresh stores, in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and Franconia, Virginia, followed similar redesigns of Fresh stores in Chicago and Southern California.

College Park-based quantum computing company IonQ Friday announced it has signed a $54.5 million contract with the United States Air Force Research Lab (AFRL). With a quarter remaining in the fiscal year, IonQ has announced $72.8 million in bookings year-to-date and reiterated its confidence in meeting or exceeding its bookings guidance of $75 million to $95 million for the year. Governments, businesses and academia are investing in quantum computing to tackle complex, multibillion-dollar problems in areas such as health care, finance and chemistry.

Long-awaited heat protection regulations for workers have been finalized and will go into effect Monday – two days after the official end of a deadly “heat season” that took the lives of dozens of Marylanders this summer. With just days left in the annual Heat-Related Illness Surveillance Report monitoring period – the so-called heat season – the Maryland Health Department had recorded 25 deaths and just under 1,200 emergency room visits due to heat-related illnesses this year.