Dockworkers Union to Suspend Strike Until Jan. 15 for Negotiations

Tom Krisher and Lorraine Mirabella
Baltimore Sun (TNS)

BALTIMORE — The union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time for further contract negotiations.

The International Longshoremen’s Association is set to resume working immediately. The union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents port operators and shipping companies, also reached a tentative agreement on wage increases, but no details were given, according to a joint statement from the ports and the union Thursday night.

A person briefed on the agreement said the ports raised their wage offer from about 50% over six years to 62%. The person didn’t want to be identified because the agreement is tentative. Any wage increase would have to be approved by union members as part of the ratification of a final contract.

The union went on strike early Tuesday after its contract expired in a dispute over pay and the automation of tasks at 36 ports stretching from Maine to Texas. The strike came at the peak of the holiday shopping season at the ports, which handle about half the cargo from ships coming into and out of the United States.

The strike effectively shut down Baltimore’s port, where the ILA represents about 2,400 port workers, for the second time this year after the deadly shipping accident that destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge and blocked the channel for two months.

But this time, shipping will have stopped at the port for only three days.

Members of the ILA had been picketing since just after midnight Tuesday outside the main gates at Dundalk and Seagirt marine terminals in Southeast Baltimore and at other terminals in South Baltimore. The Baltimore dockworkers were expected to end the pickets Thursday night and resume work covered by the extended contract.

Baltimore’s main cargo terminals are state-owned by the Maryland Port Administration but operated by private companies.

In a statement released on social media site X by spokesman Carter Elliott IV, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore congratulated the ILA and the Maritime Alliance “for coming to a tentative agreement that properly compensates the men and women of the ILA while maintaining cost effective and efficient cargo flows.”

“Come tomorrow,” Moore said, “our ports will be firing on all cylinders.”

Neither Scott Cowan, president of Baltimore’s ILA Local 333, nor the Maryland Port Administration responded immediately Thursday evening to a request for comment.

The walkout raised the risk of shortages of goods on store shelves if it lasted more than a few weeks. Most retailers, though, had stocked up or shipped items early in anticipation of the dockworkers’ strike.

“With the grace of God, and the goodwill of neighbors, it’s gonna hold,” President Joe Biden told reporters Thursday night about the agreement.

The union’s membership won’t need to vote on the temporary suspension of the strike. Until Jan. 15, the workers will be covered under the old contract, which expired Sept. 30.

The union has been demanding a complete ban on the use of automation at the ports, which they see as a threat to their jobs. Both sides also have been apart on the issues of pension contributions and the distribution of royalties paid on containers that are moved by workers.

Just before the strike had begun, the Maritime Alliance said both sides had moved off their original wage offers, which was seen as a tentative sign of progress.

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