US dockworkers and port operators on the East and Gulf Coast after a three-day strike reached a provisional deal on Thursday, October 3, 2024.
According to Al Jazeera, in a joint statement on Thursday evening, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), without disclosing the details of the deal, announced that they had “reached a tentative agreement on wages.”
Both parties also agreed to extend their contract till January 15, 2025, in order “to return to the bargaining table” for negotiating over the outstanding issues.
The statement further added, “Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume.”
Meanwhile, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that in the tentative agreement between ILA and USMX, two sides agreed on a 62% wage hike over six years, which would raise the average wage to $63 an hour from $39 an hour.
Furthermore, US President Joe Biden, after the deal between ILA and USMX, stated, “Today’s tentative agreement on a record wage and an extension of the collective bargaining process represents critical progress towards a strong contract.”
“I want to thank the union workers, the carriers, and the port operators for acting patriotically to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helene’s recovery and rebuilding. Collective bargaining works, and it is critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up,” he continued.
The deal ended the biggest port worker strike in nearly half a century and also saved the US from the threat of billion-dollar losses.
