Port strike ends as longshoremen agree on wages: NPR

Shipping containers pile up at the Port of Baltimore on September 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 longshoremen on the East and Gulf Coasts was called off after the International Longshoremen's Association and the US Maritime Alliance, which represents shipping companies and port operators, reached a tentative agreement on wages.

Both sides also agreed to extend the existing contract until January 15, 2025. In the meantime, they will return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues, including the union's demand for a ban on all automation at the ports.

The International Longshoremen's Association had sought a $5 hourly increase in each of the next six years, a 77% increase over six years. A day before the strike began, the US Maritime Alliance had offered pay increases of almost 50%.

The White House had downplayed the economic impact of a brief strike, even as Republicans in the House of Representatives and more than 170 industry groups warned that a work stoppage would have a devastating impact on supply chains and the broader economy.

President Biden has repeatedly promised to advance the collective bargaining process.

“I don’t believe in Taft-Hartley,” Biden told reporters days before the strike, referring to federal law that allows the president to request an 80-day cooling-off period if the country’s security is at risk.

More than $2 billion worth of goods, from chemicals and clothing to bourbon and bananas, typically flow through these ports every day. This week, dozens of container ships began lining up offshore, waiting for the strike to end.

The affected ports — from Boston to Houston — typically handle more than half of all freight containers coming into the U.S., or about a million containers per month, as well as more than 300,000 containers leaving the country, according to cargo tracking company Vizion.

Both sides said in a joint statement that all work would be resumed with immediate effect.