The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) have reached a tentative agreement on a new six-year master contract. The agreement will replace the expiring contract which had been extended after a short strike in October 2024.
The two groups issued a joint statement late Wednesday evening, saying “the two sides agreed to continue to operate under the current contract until the union can meet with its full Wage Scale Committee and schedule a ratification vote, and USMX members can ratify the terms of the final contract.”
The agreement covers some 45,000 union workers in container- and vehicle-handling at dozens of port and maritime cargo centers from Texas to New England.
The sides had previously agreed to a 62% pay increase following the October strike, but that was contingent on completing a new contract.
Had an agreement not been reached, dockworkers could have gone on strike on Jan. 15, when the extension expired. President Joe Biden had previously refrained from stepping in during strike activity in October.
In a classic compromise, both sides got what they had been seeking. Terminal operators and ocean carriers can introduce semi-automated rail-mounted gantry cranes they say are needed to improve efficiency in container-handling on the waterfront, while the union gets to add new jobs linked specifically to each piece of equipment. Jobs associated with cranes are among the highest-paying among port workers.
It was also a clear-cut victory for ILA President Harold Daggett, who publicly portrayed the maritime employers as avaricious foreigners siphoning billions of dollars out of the U.S. earned on the backs of underpaid American dockworkers.
The potential strike could have coincided with the start of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term; Trump had not made it clear whether federal action would have been taken this time around. In December he publicly backed the union in its anti-automation position.
Details of the tentative agreement will not be announced during the final negotiation and ratification process, which will likely stretch into the summer.