The port strike is over.
The International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance have reached a tentative agreement on wages, ending a strike that began on Tuesday. The two sides have agreed to extend the master contract until Jan. 15, 2025, 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 USMX and ILA said in a joint statement. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, port employers offered a 62% wage increase over six years.
“Today’s tentative agreement on a record wage and an extension of the collective bargaining process represents critical progress towards a strong contract,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “…Collective bargaining works, and it is critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”
The Georgia Ports Authority said its operations will resume Friday morning, with truck gates at 6 a.m. at Garden City Terminal and 8 a.m. at its Ocean Terminal.
“We are glad to see the strike has ended, but it should have never happened in the first place,” American Trucking Associations President & CEO Chris Spear said in a statement. “This is a deal that could have been cut months ago had both parties stayed at the table. That was the job of this Administration, which it refused to do. This failure was not without cost, impacting real Americans, including millions reeling from a natural disaster.”
