The dockworkers union has suspended the strike until January 15 to allow time for a new contract

DETROIT (AP) – About 45,000 dockworkers at East and Gulf Coast ports are returning to work after their union reached an agreement to postpone a strike that could have Scarcity and high prices If it had dragged on.

The International Longshoremen's Association is suspending its three-day strike until January 15 to allow time to negotiate a new contract. The union and the US Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, said in a joint statement that they had reached a tentative agreement on wages.

A person briefed on the deal said the ports had reduced their wage offer from about 50% to 62% over six years. The person did not want to be identified because the deal is tentative. Any wage increase must be approved by union members as part of the ratification of a final contract.

The discussion is now turning Port AutomationWhich the union says will lead to fewer jobs, and other sticking points.

The compromise pushes the strike and possible shortages ahead of November's presidential election, eliminating the potential liability of Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. It's also a big plus for the Biden-Harris administration, which has billed itself as the most union-friendly in American history. Deficits can raise prices and revive inflation.

It will take a day or two for ports to restart equipment and berth ships waiting at sea, but even so, consumers are not seeing any shortages because the strike was relatively short, William Brucher said. is an assistant professor of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University who follows Ports.

“I think the disruptions are going to be rather minimal and consumers aren't really going to feel them,” Brucher said.

For every day of port strike, it takes four to six days to recover, supply chain experts say. That means it will likely take about 20 days to recover, Brucher said. But during these 20 days, longshoremen will gradually increase their capacity to transport cargo until it reaches normal levels.

The union went on strike early Tuesday after its contract expired in a dispute over pay and job automation at 36 ports stretching from Maine to Texas. The strike came at the peak of the holiday season at the ports, which handle about half the cargo from ships coming in and out of the United States.

Most retailers had stocked or shipped items ahead of the strike.

“It has to be held by the grace of God and the goodwill of our neighbors,” President Joe Biden told reporters Thursday night after the deal.

In a later statement, Biden applauded both sides for “working patriotically to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helen recovery and rebuilding.”

Biden said collective bargaining is “critical to building a strong economy from the middle and bottom up.”

Union membership will not be required to vote on a temporary suspension of the strike. Till January 15, the workers will be covered by the old contract, which expired on September 30

The union demanded a 77% raise over six years, as well as a total ban on the use of automation at the port, which members see as a threat to their jobs. The two sides also differed on pension contributions and distribution of royalties paid on containers moved by workers.

Thomas Koehler, who teaches labor and employment law at Boston College, said the agreement to end the strike means the two sides are closer to a final deal.

“I'm sure they wouldn't have called off (the strike) if they weren't going anywhere,” he said. “They have wages. They will create the language of automation, and I'm sure what that really means is giving teams time to sit down and get exactly the language they can both live with.”

ILA President Harold Daggett called for an outright ban on anything that harmed people's jobs. But shipping companies want more flexibility to automate at a faster pace to compete against more efficient facilities that already use the technology, said Thomas Kochan, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Institute for Work and Employment Research.

While automation does indeed eliminate some jobs, as workers legitimately fear, It keeps creating new onesThat's partly because equipment must be maintained and set up for different jobs, Kochan said. Organizations may agree to include such jobs in union membership.

“There are ways to address these fears, both by providing job security for displaced people and the ability to accept the new jobs that are created,” he said. “That's the sweet spot I suspect they're trying to find in this final discussion of automation.”

Just before the strike began, the Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shippers, said both sides had backed away from their original wage offer, a temporary A sign of progress.

Thursday's deal came after Biden administration officials met with foreign-owned shipping companies before dawn on Zoom, according to a person briefed on the day's events, who asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. The White House sought to increase pressure for a settlement, emphasizing its responsibility to reopen ports to help recover from Hurricane Helen, the person said.

Acting Labor Secretary Julie Sue told them she could bring the union to the bargaining table to extend the contract if the carriers offer higher wages. Chief of staff Jeff Giants told the carrier they had to make a proposal by the end of the day so a man-made strike wouldn't make a natural disaster worse, the person said.

By midday, members of the maritime alliance had agreed to a major increase, bringing the deal to a close, according to the person.