Port Strike Averted With Labor Deal Days Before Deadline

Dockworkers on the East and Gulf Coasts reached a tentative labor agreement with employers on Wednesday, averting a strike that could have hammered the economy days before President-elect Donald J. Trump took office.

The International Longshoremen’s Association, the dockworkers’ union, and the United States Maritime Alliance, the employers’ negotiating group, overcame their differences over a big sticking point in their talks: the introduction of automated cargo-moving machinery at the ports.

“This agreement protects current I.L.A. jobs and establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf Coasts ports,” the two sides said in a joint statement Wednesday evening.

After members of the International Longshoremen’s Association went on a short strike in October, the maritime alliance agreed to raise wages more than 60 percent over six years, provided that other parts of the labor agreement — including provisions on automation — were resolved by Jan. 15.

The agreement is tentative because the union has not yet held a ratification vote and members of the maritime alliance also have to sign off on it. Members of other unions have in recent months rejected labor accords agreed to by their leaders.

The International Longshoremen’s Association has resisted the introduction of automated machinery at the ports, contending that it reduces jobs, a position that gained Mr. Trump’s support.

“I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it,” he said last month on his website, Truth Social. “The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen.”

The employers believe that automation can help them move containers through the ports more efficiently, and wanted to get more leeway in the new six-year contract to introduce the technology. In their statement, the two sides did not say how they had settled their differences over automation.

“This is a win-win agreement that creates I.L.A. jobs, supports American consumers and businesses, and keeps the American economy the key hub of the global marketplace,” the statement said.

A person briefed on the talks, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the International Longshoremen’s Association had guarantees that jobs would be added when automated equipment was added at a port. The employers, this person said, got language in the contract that will give them a more straightforward path for introducing automated machinery.

The agreement will come as a great relief to the businesses that import and export through the East and Gulf Coast ports, which handle some three-fifths of U.S. container traffic. Fearing a strike, some companies had accelerated imports so that they arrived before next Wednesday and diverted some shipments through West Coast ports, whose workers belong to another union.

Many types of goods come through major ports in New Jersey, Virginia, Georgia and Texas, including automobiles, fresh produce and pharmaceuticals.

In October, the International Longshoremen’s Union and the maritime alliance agreed that wages would increase to $63 an hour, from $39, by the end of the new contract. With shift work and overtime, the pay of many longshoremen at some East Coast ports could rise to well over $200,000 a year. (At the Port of New York and New Jersey, nearly 60 percent of the longshoremen made $100,000 to $200,000 in the 12 months through June 2020, the latest figures available, according to data from an agency that helped oversee the port.)

The wage rose after President Biden applied pressure on the employers to increase their offer.