Dock workers' strike suspended, union says

A historic port strike in the United States has been suspended, according to the International Longshoremen's Association and the US Maritime Alliance.

A tentative agreement was reached “on wages” and to extend “the framework agreement until January 15, 2025 in order to return to the negotiating table and negotiate all other outstanding issues,” ILA and USMX said in a joint statement on Thursday evening.

“With immediate effect, all current work activities will cease and all work covered by the framework agreement will resume,” the statement said.

Tens of thousands of U.S. longshoremen walked off the job early Tuesday morning, clogging dozens of ports along the East and Gulf coasts.

ILA members began picketing shipping ports along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. This was the union's first coast-wide strike in nearly 50 years.

The ILA, the union that represents 50,000 longshoremen on the East and Gulf Coasts under the disputed contract, called for higher wages and a ban on the use of some automated equipment.

“ILA longshoremen deserve compensation for the important work they do to keep America's trade moving and growing,” the ILA said in a statement to ABC News on Monday. “Meanwhile, ILA’s dedicated longshoremen continue to suffer from inflation due to USMX’s unfair wage packages.”

After the strike, President Joe Biden demanded a fair deal from USMX, an organization that negotiates on behalf of longshoremen's employers. In a statement released Tuesday, Biden highlighted shipping companies' strong profits in recent years as well as the sacrifices made by longshoremen during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amid the strike, USMX said Wednesday it remains “committed to negotiating in good faith to address the ILA's demands and USMX's concerns.”

A prolonged work stoppage of several weeks or months could have reignited inflation in some goods and led to layoffs among manufacturers as raw materials dried up, experts said.

The last time East and Gulf Coast workers went on strike in 1977, the stoppage lasted seven weeks.

In 2002, a strike among workers at West Coast ports lasted 11 days before then-President George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act and ended the standoff.