The Port strike impacting US East and Gulf coasts ports has come to an end, with workers expected to return to work on Friday (October 4th).
The ILA union and the USMX both confirm that they have reached an agreement on wages and work will resume until January 15th, by when they hope to have negotiated “all other outstanding issues”.
Under the new agreement, contracted wages will go up by 62% over the next six years. Seemingly a sensible compromise, after the union had demanded a 77% increase and the USMX had previously offered around 50%.
More than 40,000 union members are understood to have walked out Tuesday, which brought ports between Maine in the Northeast and Texas in the South, to a standstill.
President Biden stated last night “I congratulate the dockworkers from the ILA, who deserve a strong contract after sacrificing so much to keep our ports open during the pandemic,” and “I applaud the port operators and carriers for working hard and putting a strong offer on the table.”
In the next few weeks, there is likely to be some disruption to ocean freight services due to port congestion and as carriers get their vessels back into rotation. But overall, the end of the strike is very good news for the industry.
