US port strike averted with tentative labor deal

Union dockworker demonstrates outside port — A union dockworker and member of the International Longshoremen's Association demonstrates outside a port

(Image credit: Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images)

What happened

The International Longshoremen's Association and port terminal operators on the East Coast and Gulf Coast reached a tentative labor deal Wednesday, averting a disruptive dockworker strike that could have shut down all major ports from Maine to Texas starting next week.

Who said what

In a joint statement, the union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance said their "win-win agreement" protects and creates "ILA jobs, supports American consumers and businesses," and "establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf Coast ports."

The ILA and Maritime Alliance, representing port operators and shipping companies, agreed to a 62% pay raise for dockworkers to end a three-day strike in October, but they were still at loggerheads over using automated technology at the ports. The joint statement "did not say how they had settled their differences over automation," The New York Times said, but the tentative six-year deal reportedly "guarantees that jobs would be added when automated equipment was added at a port."

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What next?

The agreement, "reached in principle verbally," must "still be ratified by port employers and by tens of thousands" of ILA members, The Wall Street Journal said. "Members of other unions have in recent months rejected labor accords agreed to by their leaders," said the Times.

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.