Automation is less important at the east coast ports because there are more ports and most container ships don't completely unload at one port but stop at a few ports unloading portions of their cargo at each where the cargo doesn't usually travel all that far from the destination port. Compared that to west coast ports (which are mostly automated) where the biggest of container ships unload their entire load at one port and most of the cargo is then sent via rail all over the US (quite a bit of it going all of the way to the east coast).

The biggest irony of the port strike is that by publicly threatening to crash the logistics network of imports the ILA spokespeople might have turned public opinion in favor of full automation. I don't think that will happen since full automation requires MASSIVE investments and these ports do comparatively small amounts of cargo traffic compared to the giant freight terminals on the west coast.