U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico longshore workers, represented by the International Longshore Association (ILA), have reached a preliminary agreement with the USMX shipping association that ends their strike.
The ILA indicated in a press release that it had reached “an agreement in principle on salaries and had agreed to extend the framework contract until January 15, 2025”. “With immediate effect, all ongoing industrial action will cease and all work covered by the framework contract will resume,” the union added.
The New York Times newspaper said workers got a 62% pay increase, lower than the 77% they demanded for the next six years, but higher than the 50% the organization had initially offered them.
About 45,000 longshoremen who are members of the ILA union went on strike Tuesday to force employers to reach an agreement.
For the first time since 1977, the United States was faced with a closure of its ports which affected 36 strategic terminals such as Elizabeth/Newark, Baltimore, Savannah, Houston, New Orleans or Miami, through which transited between 43 and 49% of US maritime trade. the country.
The financial company JP Morgan had estimated that each day of strike could generate losses of around $5 billion. Closing the port of Houston alone, the largest in the Gulf of Mexico, could result in daily losses of 100 million euros in imports and exports, according to data from Miter Corporation, a Virginia-based think tank.
The US government had ruled out that the shutdown would have an immediate effect on the economy or prices, but the consumer goods, automotive, energy and agricultural products sectors could have been most affected if it continued.
US President Joe Biden had said he did not intend to use provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, which would allow him to impose an 80-day return to work for national security reasons, but he positioned himself this week in favor of longshoremen and urged employers to improve their conditions.
Biden welcomes end of strike and collective bargaining
Today, Biden celebrated the agreement ending the strike. “I want to thank union workers, shippers and port operators for acting with patriotism to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of essential supplies for recovery and rebuilding after Hurricane Helene,” he said. said in a statement released by the White House.
Collective bargaining “is essential to building a stronger economy from the center out and from the bottom up,” the Democratic president stressed after the ILA announced it was ending the strike that began Tuesday in the ports of the eastern United States and the Gulf. from Mexico.
