Dockworkers suspend strike that threatened to cripple commerce

Striking dockworkers at Maher Terminals in Elizabeth on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (Photo by Mark Bonamo for New Jersey Monitor)

Tens of thousands of striking dockworkers returned to work after they reached a tentative labor agreement Thursday, ending a stoppage that threatened to cripple commerce nationwide into the holidays.

The International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance, Ltd., announced that they reached a tentative agreement on wages and agreed to extend their contract until Jan. 15.

The union and the alliance, which represents shipping companies and port authorities, plan to return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues.

“Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume,” the two sides said in a joint statement Thursday night.

Dockworkers at ports from Texas to Maine walked off the job Tuesday in the first large-scale eastern dockworker strike since 1977, when dockworkers stayed off the job for several weeks.

They wanted higher wages and a ban on all automation at ports. At a rally Tuesday in Elizabeth, the union’s international president, Harold Daggett, vowed workers would remain on strike “until the end.”

Political observers had expected a lengthy strike could impact the U.S. presidential election.

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