The United States Maritime Alliance and International Longshoremen’s Association reached a deal on a contract Wednesday night avoiding a strike that could have shut down ports up and down the East Coast and crippled the U.S. economy.
Details of the deal were not made public pending a ratification vote, but both sides said they resolved the thorny issue of port automation technology ahead of the Jan. 15 deadline.
A longshoremen’s strike in October lasted 72 hours, shutting down 36 ports from Maine to Texas. More than 47,000 dock workers — represented by the ILA, a union based in North Bergen — walked off the job at the start of the month, including 4,500 from New York and New Jersey.
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“This agreement protects current ILA jobs and establishes a framework for implementing technologies that will create more jobs while modernizing East and Gulf coast ports — making them safer and more efficient, and creating the capacity they need to keep our supply chains strong,” reads a joint statement between the ILA and USMX, the Lyndhurst-based shipping alliance that represents shipping companies and port terminal operators.
More: NJ ports have been slow to modernize. Will they take the leap to control costs?
Harold Daggett, who heads the dockworkers union, said President-elect Donald Trump “gets full credit” for the deal, following a mid-December meeting with ILA officials and Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Trump said on his social media website Truth Social following that meeting that with automation, “the amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen.”
The last strike’s economic impact
While the effect of the October strike was short-lived, shoppers engaged in panic buying for water bottles and paper goods, including toilet paper, even though most toilet paper is produced in the U.S.
Elizabeth, NJ — October 1, 2024 — ILA Local member, Dave “The Rave” Hallerman encourages fellow longshoremen to chant and show union support. Members of the International Longshoreman’s Association strike at Port Elizabeth on Tuesday after contract talks broke down.
Ultimately, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees the ports in both states, said it took less than a week to clear the backlog of goods after the October strike.
In New York and New Jersey, the economic impact on the 19 counties that surround the ports of both states was $250 million to $300 million for every day of the strike, Port Authority officials said.
Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.
Email: munozd@northjersey.com; Twitter:@danielmunoz100 and Facebook
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Dockworkers, shipping companies reach deal to avoid NJ strike