A historic United States port strike has been suspended and a tentative agreement was reached “on wages,” according to the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance.
“Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume,” the ILA and USMX said in a joint statement Thursday evening.
The tentative agreement would increase workers’ wages by 62% over the life of the 6-year contract, sources familiar confirm to ABC News.
This represents a significant increase from the shipping industry group’s offer of a 50% wage increase earlier this week. The union had been pushing for a 77% pay hike over six years.
The tentative agreement would bring the hourly wage for a top dockworker to $63 per hour at the end of the new contract, up from $39 per hour under the expired contract.
That would require more than just the pay rate to judge. It seems to be a decent bump up, but I was under the impression that some of the concern that led to the strike was how automation was going to affect their job. $63/hour isn’t all that great if you have half the hours, or no job at all because they needed only half the workers.
If preserving jobs regardless of technology were a criterion, we’d still have farriers in every town. Things change. Good on them for getting a pay raise, though. It’s hard and essential work.
I was also under that impression.