Dockworkers are back on the job at ports across the East and Gulf coasts, but their union warned that major issues involving automation remain to be negotiated before an extension of the current contract expires early in 2025.
Major terminals were open Sunday to help get container handling restarted after the three-day strike by 45,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) brought import cargo to a halt and forced dozens of ships to wait at anchor outside marine gateways from New England to Texas.
As much as 1 million twenty-foot equivalent units’ worth of cargo likely would have been stuck outside the ports if the strike had lasted as long as one week.
The ILA suspended its work stoppage late Thursday after tentatively agreeing to a 62% pay raise with port employers represented by the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX). Working with the assistance of Biden administration officials, the sides also agreed to extend the most recent master contract through Jan. 15 and return to bargaining on a new six-year pact. At issue are benefits, container royalties and an insistence by the union that automation technology be barred from 14 container handling centers across 36 ports.
“While securing a substantial wage increase is an important part of the contract, we must also protect our historical work jurisdiction [over specific jobs] and prevent automation from replacing jobs,” President Harold Daggett said in a message to members posted on the union website.
Terminal operators and shipping lines of the USMX have said they are in agreement with the union on technology issues.
Ratification of a new contract by the ILA rank and file is not a certainty; 33,000 workers now on strike at Boeing in September rejected a tentative agreement with the largest U.S. aerospace company.
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