NEW YORK/WASHINGTON/LOS ANGELES — A union representing U.S. dock workers and port operators have reached a tentative deal on wages that will end a three-day strike that has shut down shipping on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast. the International Longshoremen’s Association union and the United States Maritime Alliance said on Thursday.
The agreement extends the master contract between the union and port operators until Jan. 15, 2025, allowing negotiations to continue on other aspects of the contract. A joint statement did not specify what wages were agreed upon or the other terms that required negotiation.
“Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume,” the statement said
The tentative agreement is for a wage hike of around 62% over six years, The Bergen Record, a part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, reported.
The workers union had been seeking a 77% raise while the employer group previously raised its offer to a nearly 50% hike.
The deal ends the biggest work stoppage of its kind in nearly half a century, which blocked unloading of container ships from Maine to Texas and threatened shortages of everything from bananas to auto parts, triggering a backlog of anchored ships outside major ports.Agreement praised by Biden, Retail Federation
President Joe Biden praised the agreement in a statement released by the White House moments after the agreement was announced.
“I want to thank the union workers, the carriers, and the port operators for acting patriotically to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helene recovery and rebuilding,” Biden said. “Collective bargaining works, and it is critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”
The Biden administration sided with the union, putting pressure on the port employers to raise their offer to secure a deal and citing the shipping industry’s bumper profits since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With the grace of God…it’s going to hold,” Biden told reporters at Joint Base Andrews after landing there following a storm damage tour of Georgia and Florida.
The administration repeatedly resisted calls from business trade groups and Republican lawmakers to use federal powers to halt the strike – a move that would undermine Democratic support among unions ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.One of those trade groups echoed the President’s praise in the wake of the tentative agreement.
“The decision to end the current strike and allow the East and Gulf coast ports to reopen is good news for the nation’s economy,” the National Retail Federation CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement.
The NRF had called upon the Biden administration to “use any and all available authority and tools” to end the strike in a statement released Monday.
