Dockworkers’ Strike Suspended
A tentative agreement has been reached.
Surprising good news, at least judging on the rhetoric from the union I was hearing a scant 24 hours ago. The NYT reports: Port Union Agrees to Suspend Strike.
Employers, represented by the United States Maritime Alliance, have offered to increase wages by 62 percent over the course of a new six-year contract, according to a person familiar with negotiations who did not want to be identified because the talks were continuing. That increase is lower than what the union had initially asked for, but much higher than the alliance’s earlier offer.
In a statement, the union said that it had reached “a tentative agreement on wages” and that its 45,000 members would go back to work, with the current contract extended until Jan. 15. The union said it was returning to the bargaining table “to negotiate all other outstanding issues.” The alliance issued a similar statement.
The agreement came after the White House pressed both sides to reach a deal to end the strike, the union’s first full-scale walkout since 1977. The wage increase is a clear victory for the I.L.A. and its combative president, Harold J. Daggett, a 78-year-old, third-generation dockworker who has led the union since 2011.
This is good news for the economy, given that a protracted stoppage of shipping would have created noticeable shortages of consumer goods and increased prices in some cases. Moreover, it could have had broader impacts on manufacturing given the reliance that on parts from abroad in some sectors.
Other pending issues include:
In the resumed talks, the issue of how much automation can occur at the ports could divide the sides. The union has also been pressing for improved retirement benefits.
Another potential sticking point is the pay of longshoremen who are just starting out and don’t earn the top wage rate. Mr. Daggett’s son, Dennis A. Daggett, a senior official at the I.L.A., said in an interview on Tuesday on a picket line in Bayonne, N.J., that the union wanted to get higher wages for less experienced members.
The Biden administration was active in the negotiations.
Biden administration officials worked behind the scenes with both sides to try to bring about a resolution in the days and weeks leading to the deal, according to people familiar with the White House’s thinking. That culminated in a flurry of activity on Thursday, including a trip by the acting labor secretary, Julie Su, to New Jersey to meet with the union’s leaders to secure their agreement.
Officials ramped up pressure for a deal in recent days by stressing the need to reopen the ports after the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene, these people said. In an early-morning Zoom call with foreign carriers on Thursday, officials framed reaching a deal as a patriotic duty to expedite aid.
“Collective bargaining works, and it is critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up,” Mr. Biden said in a statement on Thursday.
It also takes the “October Surprise” element of the labor dispute off the table, as a prolonged strike could have affected the outcome of the election given that the economy is the central issue for many voters, especially prices.
Good news for the economy is good news for the Harris campaign while bad news for the economy would have been good news for Trump. Make of that what you will.
These seems like a real bullet dodged. Thanks, Dark Brandon!
@Joe: Agreed.
Could it persuade Trump loving working class people (primarily men) who is really on their side?
Speaking now from direct experience, that type of hyperbole happens on both sides of union contract issues. Because of the adversarial nature of the process, both sides almost always keep up maximum rhetorical pressure on each other until you reach a tentative agreement. And that pressure needs to be backed up by things like a strike authorization vote (or, in this case, an open ended strike).
Like politics, union organizing (and management resistance to organizing ain’t mumblypeg).
@Matt Bernius: To be clear: I know that the rhetoric is part of the process. I just judged yesterday that we were in the escalatory phase of the process and did not think there was a suspension right around the corner.
@Steven L. Taylor:
I understand, and it’s my experience that both sides tend to continue to escalate until the TA is in place. And, to be clear, escalation isn’t an empty threat–especially depending on what the sticking point in negotiations is.
My guess is that they were still far apart on one of the major financial planks and trying to get management to move close enough to secure the TA.