JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf Coast ports reached a deal Thursday to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract.
Thursday evening members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 1408 were excited about the tentative agreement.
They all cheered as Warren Smith, the president of the ILA chapter, gave them the news.
“I’m very proud of the job that was done by the international. I’m very proud of the brothers and sisters here who held that line and refused to go back to work,” Smith said. “There were situations in which we were thinking about certain particulars and this membership assured us that they were not going to cross that line that they were holding out for wages and automation.”
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The union, the ILA, is to resume working immediately. The temporary end to the strike came after the union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, reached a tentative agreement on wages, the union and ports said in a joint statement.
A person briefed on the agreement said the ports sweetened 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.
Smith said as a third-generation longshoreman, he couldn’t be more proud of everything that was happening.
Similar feelings were also felt by Mincy Pollock who’s also an ILA Local 1408 member.
“It has been, at this moment I’m ecstatic,” Pollock said. “We’re super excited. But what these last three days have been it’s been as intense as the work that we do. The work the longshoremen do on a regular basis because we were 24 hours around the clock for the stand.”
And Smith said he knows the energy will be high when workers go back to work.
“I believe when we get back to the ports on tomorrow that they’re going to understand why they employ ILA,” Smith said. “We’re going to get back to work. We’re going to turn those ships out. We’re going to get everything back on schedule. We’re going to get the supply chain back moving. So we can do what we’ve always done and service our community.”
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 union’s membership won’t need to vote on the temporary suspension of the strike, meaning that giant cranes should start loading and unloading shipping containers Thursday night. Until Jan. 15, the workers will be covered under the old contract, which expired on Sept. 30.
The union had been demanding a 77% raise over six years, plus a complete ban on the use of automation at the ports, which members 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.