Dockworkers union suspends strike; ports reopen on East and Gulf coasts

Striking dockworkers agreed to go back to work Thursday evening after reaching a tentative agreement with port operators for a 62 percent wage increase that extends the current contract through Jan. 15, providing more time to bargain over remaining issues. The deal — brokered with the apparent help of senior Biden administration officials, according to a person close to the talks — came on the third day of the strike, sparing the U.S. economy the worst of the disruptions. It also takes a difficult issue for the Biden administration out of play less than five weeks before the presidential election, in which the White House’s stewardship of the economy is a key issue. “Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume,” the parties said in a joint statement announcing the agreement. Wages had not kept up with inflation at a time when shipping companies made hundreds of billions in profits, the union had said. If the deal holds, the pay gains longshoremen have now agreed to — amounting to a $24-an-hour bump in the top pay rate over six years — would mark another in a string of major victories for organized labor in recent years. Vincent Cameron, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based vice president in the union, said he is confident that the remaining issues can be hammered out. Port operators and dockworkers reached a tentative deal on Oct. 4, allowing ports across the U.S. to reopen. (Video: Reuters) “I’m excited that we have worked out some big pieces and over the next 90 days we’re going to work out the rest of the components of this agreement,” Cameron said. “I believe that all parties are energized.” Advertisement The U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents employers and major shipping lines, had earlier this week offered 50 percent rates over the six-year contract, which the union had rejected. But White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and other senior officials held a virtual meeting with the shipping lines at 5:30 a.m. Thursday, according to a person familiar with the talks. Acting labor secretary Julie Su visited union leaders in New Jersey to seal the deal, according to the person. “Collective bargaining works, and it is critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up,” President Joe Biden said in a statement after the deal was announced. Advertisement An extended strike could have proved perilous for him and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is running to be his successor. The inflation during the early years of Biden’s term hurt his reputation for managing the economy, and Harris had only recently been shifting that view among voters. The National Retail Federation, which led almost 300 industry groups in calling for the White House to step in this week, said the tentative deal was good news for businesses and urged the two sides to work on the outstanding issues. “The sooner they reach a deal, the better for all American families,” said Matthew Shay, the federation’s chief executive. Advertisement The strike drew attention to the union’s fiery president, Harold Daggett, who went viral online for comments about corporate greed on picket lines earlier this week. He had said that dockworkers deserve a fair share of hundreds of billions of dollars in profits that shipping companies have made in recent years, especially after working through the pandemic. Daggett differs from a lot of left-leaning union leaders in that he has a long-standing relationship with Trump based on their ties to New York, according to the union. The union has mostly donated to Democrats, around $115,000, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign contributions. Port Houston said it would open its gates at 1 p.m. Central time Friday and expected to begin handling vessels by 7 p.m. Major importers had months to plan for a potential strike, allowing them to bring in shipments for the holiday shopping season earlier than usual and reroute cargo to the West Coast where ports are represented by a separate union. While a short-term strike was not expected to damage the economy, analysts said a longer strike could have led to shortages of key products and inflated prices for consumers. An analysis by the Conference Board, a think tank, concluded that a week-long strike would have cost the economy $3.78 billion. But shipping lines are seeking new ways to improve efficiency at U.S. ports, which analysts say have lagged behind those in other countries when it comes to modernizing. Kenneth Riley, a Charleston, S.C., union vice president, said he thought the outstanding questions could be resolved and that the strike had shown that the longshoremen had to be reckoned with. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/03/port-strike-over/