ILA ends East and Gulf Coast port strike after three days
Dockworkers and port employers reached a tentative wage deal in October 2024 and extended their master contract to Jan. 15, 2025.
In October 2024, the International Longshoremen's Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, or USMX, reached a tentative agreement on wages that ended a strike at East and Gulf Coast ports. The two sides announced the deal Oct. 3.
ILA members had walked off the job early Tuesday, Oct. 1, setting up picket lines along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, ABC News reported. It was the union's first strike since 1977. CNBC reported that it affected operations at 14 ports and that about 50,000 of the union's 85,000 members took part.
The agreement
In a joint statement, the ILA and USMX said they had agreed to extend the master contract until Jan. 15, 2025, and return to the bargaining table on all other outstanding issues. "Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume," the statement said.
ILA wages would rise 61.5% over six years under the tentative deal, sources told CNBC. ABC News reported that the deal would raise top dockworker pay to $63 an hour by the end of the contract, from $39 under the expired agreement. ILA President Harold Daggett had sought $5 an hour for each year of a six-year contract, CNBC reported.
Automation remained unresolved. CNBC said the parties had a little over 100 days to reach a final agreement or face another strike.
Clearing the backlog
The strike had stressed supply chains, with thousands of containers left at the wrong ports and vessels waiting offshore, CNBC reported. Everstream Analytics estimated it would take at least three weeks to return to normal operations. Everstream counted 54 container ships waiting outside Gulf and East Coast ports the morning after the deal.
Bethann Rooney, port director for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, estimated 35,000 import containers on ships and 21,000 in terminals were waiting. She called that "less than one week of normal activity."
What it meant for carriers
At Georgia ports, truck gates, ocean terminals, vessel operations and rail operations resumed the day after the deal, according to CNBC. Hapag-Lloyd said it expected the recovery to take three to four weeks, CNBC reported.