Port workers reach tentative wage agreement to end strike, return to work Friday

Dockworkers will end their short-lived port strike as negotiators for the union and management tentatively agreed to a new contract on Thursday.

Workers will return to their posts on Friday as negotiators finalize the details of the new contract and rank-and-file members vote on ratification. In the meantime, both sides agreed to extend the current contract until January 15 to give negotiators time to work out the deal, they said in a statement.

The International Longshoremen’s Association, a labor union representing 45,000 workers on the East Coast and Gulf Coast, went on strike Tuesday after rejecting a 50 percent wage increase from the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), the management association for ports and terminals. The ILA was demanding a 77 percent wage increase and an end to cost-cutting port automation.

“Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume,” the statement reads.

The USMX offered ILA workers a 62 percent wage increase over a six-year period after facing political pressure from the Biden administration and the prospect of widespread economic disruption. President Joe Biden said he would not use federal labor law under the Taft-Hartley Act to disband the strike and bring the union members back to work. The ILA endorsed Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign but has not chosen a candidate this time around.

Both major presidential candidates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, expressed sympathy for the dockworkers after the strike began. Harris said the longshoremen “deserve a fair share of these record profits” and sought to contrast her record on unions to that of her rival. Trump blamed the strike on inflation under the Biden administration and suggested the dockworkers were suffering from it like many other Americans.

When the strike became national news, ILA president and chief negotiator Harold Daggett received national attention for his large salary and alleged ties to organized crime. Daggett’s union salary tops $700,000 annually and he lives in a multi-million dollar mansion, with a Bentley parked outside. Leading up to the strike, Daggett promised his union would “cripple” the U.S. economy with its first sustained strike in decades.

Daggett and two co-defendants were previously prosecuted for alleged ties to the Genovese crime family, but were found not guilty after one of the co-defendants mysteriously disappeared. He is one of many ILA members suspected of having connections to mafia organizations.

In addition to the economic damage, the longshoremen strike had the potential to interfere with much-needed disaster relief deliveries to southeastern parts of the U.S. impacted by Hurricane Helene. Florida governor Ron DeSantis (R) ordered the state’s national guard to maintain critical ports earlier Thursday to limit the economic ramifications of the strike, especially for Florida residents recovering from hurricane destruction.