US dockworkers have ended their port strike after a brief three-day period, as the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance reached a tentative labor agreement. This preliminary deal includes a 62% pay raise for workers over a six-year period.
However, this deal only suspends the strike until January 15, 2025 to allow additional time for negotiations.
Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Dani Romero delves into the details, discussing why automation has emerged as a central point of contention in ongoing talks.
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This post was written by Angel Smith
Well, tens of thousands of dock workers along the East and Gulf Coasts heading back to work today after reaching a tentative labor agreement, ending a three-day strike. Here with the details is Yahoo Finance's senior reporter, Danny Romero. Danny, you were out there earlier this week. You've been all across this story. So, what is the big difference now? Does it seem like they've come to an agreement?
After two days, the strike is over. Both the International Longshoremen Association and the US Maritime Alliance have come to the table with a tentative deal. They announced this just yesterday. That means dock workers went back to work yesterday, and they're on the job right now. Details were not disclosed of this tentative deal, but it was reported that both parties have come to an agreement to a 62% wage increase over the next six years in this new contract. Now, negotiations are far from over. The union said that they will continue to work under their current contract until January 15th, and one of their biggest sticking points has been the language around automation, which it's still unclear even if this tentative deal is in that language. Remember, the union has to approve to ratify the final contract at the end of the day.
Yeah, Danny, talk to us a little bit more about that automation factor, because yes, this does kick the can down the road for three months here. We do get past the election, which we know, just in terms of political standpoint, that was something that seemed to be a concern here. I guess you could say almost for both sides, but especially for the Democrats ahead of this. But when you look into, in fact, the impact that this could have on the sector here, if automation is, in fact, included or not included, the language surrounding that, what are you hearing? And I guess, what are the dock workers then still pushing for, because that was such an important point throughout these negotiations?
I talked to one union member on the ground who brought her family there. And and I thought that was a really impacting moment because she was really trying to signal to her her kids that like, hey, this is important to be fighting for this. Really, they're the the conversation around automation is that they don't want it at all in the contract. They they're, you know, I talked to some crane operators. They were like, this will not help us. This will pretty much make us not have a job. But again, this is still a tentative deal. They're still in negotiation. So, even if this negotiation does go through, we'll have to wait and see to see how that language is really specified in that contract. But at the end of the day, they are far from wanting automation completely. But we have seen other ports in Asia move towards automation, and we have seen that it is effective at the end of the day.
All right, Danny Romero, great stuff and great reporting this week on the dock worker strike.
