Port workers on the East Coast and Gulf Coast reached a tentative labor agreement with employers on Wednesday, averting a strike that could have damaged the economy days before President-elect Donald J. Trump took office.
The International Longshoremen's Association, the dockworkers' union, and the United States Maritime Alliance, the employers' bargaining group, overcame their differences over a major sticking point in their talks: the introduction of automated cargo-moving machines at the ports.
“This agreement protects current ILA jobs and creates a framework for deploying technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf Coast ports,” the two sides said in a joint statement Wednesday evening.
After members of the International Longshoremen's Association staged a brief strike in October, the maritime alliance agreed to increase wages by more than 60 percent over six years, on the condition that other parts of the labor agreement – including provisions on automation – were resolved before January 15. .
The agreement is provisional because the union has not yet held a ratification vote and members of the maritime alliance must also sign it. Members of other unions have rejected labor agreements negotiated by their leaders in recent months.
The International Longshoremen's Association has opposed the introduction of automated machines at the ports, arguing it would reduce jobs, a position that received support from Trump.
“I studied automation and know just about everything there is to know about it,” he said on his website Truth Social last month. “The amount of money saved does not come close to the suffering, pain and damage it causes to American workers, in this case our longshoremen.”
The employers believe automation can help them move containers through ports more efficiently and wanted more leeway to introduce the technology in the new six-year contract. In their statement, the two sides did not say how they had resolved their differences over automation.
“This is a win-win deal that creates ILA jobs, supports American consumers and businesses, and keeps the U.S. economy the key hub of the global marketplace,” the statement said.
A person briefed on the talks, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the International Longshoremen's Association had assurances that jobs would be added if automated equipment were added at a port. The employers, this person said, have included language in the contract that gives them an easier path to introducing automated machines.
The deal will come as a major relief to companies that import and export through East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, which handle about three-fifths of U.S. container traffic. Fearing a strike, some companies had accelerated imports to arrive before next Wednesday and diverted some shipments through West Coast ports where workers belong to different unions.
Many types of goods pass through the major ports in New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia and Texas, including automobiles, fresh produce and pharmaceuticals.
In October, the International Longshoremen's Union and the maritime alliance agreed that wages would rise from $39 to $63 an hour by the end of the new contract. Shift work and overtime could increase the wages of many longshoremen at some East Coast ports to well over $200,000 a year. (At the Port of New York and New Jersey, nearly 60 percent of longshoremen earned between $100,000 and $200,000 in the 12 months through June 2020, the latest figures available, according to data from an agency that helped oversee the harbour.)
Wages rose after President Biden put pressure on employers to increase their offers.
