Dockworkers Suspend Crippling Strike 

SC Daily Gazette—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, including Charleston, walked off the job Tuesday in the first large-scale eastern dockworker strike since 1977, when dockworkers stayed off the job for several weeks.

The union sought a 77% hike in base pay over the six-year life of the contract and a ban on all automation at ports. The strike started after the union rejected shipping companies’ offer of a 50% hike.

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 and further hinder emergency efforts to help victims of Hurricane Helene.

Lawmakers asking President Joe Biden to intervene in the strike by invoking the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act included South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham. But the president had declined.

“Very good news indeed for suffering people throughout the Southeast that the port strike is over. It was beginning to have a devastating effect, adding misery to pain,” Graham wrote on X after the announcement. “I am glad this man-made disaster is behind us. Now we will have more resources to help the devastated.”

Gates at South Carolina’s ports opened at 6 a.m. Friday and cargo operations resumed at 7 a.m., according to the state Ports Authority.

“Now that the parties have agreed to resume their roles in our supply chain success, South Carolina’s maritime community stands prepared to deliver for shippers, including manufacturers, farmers and retailers, who utilize our port facilities to access global markets,” a message on the Ports Authority website reads.

According to multiple news outlets, the tentative agreement suspending the strike provides dockworkers a 62% increase in hourly wages over six years. That would bring wages for top-scale employees — meaning they have at least six years’ experience — from $39 an hour under the contract that expired Monday to $63 an hour in 2030.

The local union president in Charleston told the SC Daily Gazette that about 80% of dockworkers at South Carolina ports are top-scale employees. Charles Brave said Tuesday that South Carolina union members were more concerned about banning automation.

The tentative agreement does not address automation. Negotiations on that will continue while the strike is suspended.

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