US dockworkers suspend strike to allow for talks

Dockworkers at ports on America’s east and Gulf coasts have agreed to start moving cargo again while they continue collective bargaining with their employers on a new contract.
The International Longshoremen’s Association said it had reached a tentative agreement on wages and had extended their contract until January 15 to return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues.
Port owners in the US had been under growing pressure to end the biggest dockworker strike in almost half a century, which has left dozens of container ships waiting outside big ports.
The walkout by thousands of members of the ILA was due to enter its fourth day. Dockworkers had rejected a 50 per cent pay rise offer over six years from the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), the alliance of container carriers, port employers and associations.
There were 54 ships waiting outside big ports on the east and gulf coasts, data from Everstream Analytics shows, up from three on Sunday. Ports in Savannah, Georgia, New York and Norfolk, Virginia are among the worst hit.
It is the ILA’s first significant stoppage since 1977 and has hit 36 ports. Businesses had warned that the industrial action could bring shortages of everything from bananas to car parts and clothing in the US. Analysts at JP Morgan have estimated that the strike could cost the economy up to $5 billion a day.
President Biden has sided with the union and has resisted calls from Republican rivals and US retailers to use federal powers to halt the strike.
“Foreign ocean carriers have made record profits since the pandemic,” Biden said this week. “Executive compensation has grown in line with those profits and profits have been returned to shareholders at record rates. It’s only fair that workers, who put themselves at risk during the pandemic to keep ports open, see a meaningful increase in their wages as well.”