US Port Strike Comes To An End After Three Days
The Port strike at US East and Gulf coasts ports has come to an end for now, and workers will seemingly be returning to work from Friday 4th October.
The ILA union confirmed that it has reached a tentative agreement on wages and will go back to work until 15 January, before which they hope to have negotiated “all other outstanding issues”.
Under the tentative agreement, wages will go up by 62% over the next six years. The two parties seem to have reached a sensible compromise after the union had been pushing for a 77% increase, with the USMX previously offering around 50%.
Over 40,000 union members understood to have downed tools and ports stopped operations between Maine in the Northeast and Texas in the South, resulting in the biggest US dockworker strike in nearly half a century.
President Biden said “I congratulate the dockworkers from the ILA, who deserve a strong contract after sacrificing so much to keep our ports open during the pandemic,” and “I applaud the port operators and carriers for working hard and putting a strong offer on the table.”
It’s not currently clear whether some or all ports will be operational today or over the weekend, but the agreement is excellent news for the industry. Inevitably, there is likely to be some congestion and scheduling issues over the coming weeks before things settle down.
