Shipping containers sit piled at the Port of Baltimore on Sept. 21, 2018.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
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Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
The strike by tens of thousands of dockworkers on the East and Gulf coasts has been called off, after the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, representing ocean carriers and port operators, reached a tentative agreement on wages.
The two sides also agreed to extend the existing contract until Jan. 15, 2025. In the meantime, they will return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues, including the union’s demand on a ban on all automation at the ports.
The International Longshoremen’s Association had been seeking $5-an-hour raises in each of the next six years, amounting to a 77% increase over six years. A day before the strike began, the U.S. Maritime Alliance had offered nearly 50% in raises.
The White House had downplayed the economic impact of a short strike, despite warnings from House Republicans and more than 170 industry groups that a work stoppage would have a devastating impact on supply chains and the broader economy.
President Biden repeatedly vowed to let the collective bargaining process play out.
“I don’t believe in Taft-Hartley,” Biden told reporters days before the strike, citing the federal law that allows the president to call for an 80-day cooling-off period when the nation’s safety is at risk.
More than $2 billion worth of goods typically flow through these ports daily, from chemicals and clothing to bourbon and bananas. This week, dozens of container ships had started to line up, offshore, waiting for the strike to end.
The affected ports — from Boston to Houston — normally handle more than half of all cargo containers coming into the U.S., or about a million containers a month, as well as more than 300,000 containers heading out of the country, according to the freight-tracking company Vizion.
Effective immediately, all work will resume, the two sides said in a joint statement.