|Updated: Oct. 4, 2024 at 5:30 AM EDT
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC/AP) - The union for over 45,000 U.S. dockworkers has agreed to suspend a three-day ports strike until January to negotiate a new contract after reaching a tentative deal on Thursday.
The union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, is to resume working immediately. The temporary end to the strike came after the union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, reached a tentative agreement on wages, the union and ports said in a joint statement.
A person briefed on the agreement said the ports sweetened their wage offer from about 50% over six years to 62%. The person didn’t want to be identified because the agreement is tentative. Any wage increase would have to be approved by union members as part of the ratification of a final contract.
Charleston ports workers gathered Thursday night at the ILA Local 1422 headquarters to celebrate news of the strike’s suspension.
“The hard part is worked out. It’s just now that we have to finish baking the cake, that’s what we call it in negotiations, we have to finish baking the cake,” ILA Local 1422 President Charles Brave Jr. said. “We got 90 days to get through this, but I tell them, rest assured, we’re going to have a ratification vote and I’m quite sure the agreement will be voted up. It’s just a matter of us working through the logistics of it.”
SC Ports President and CEO Barbara Melvin released a statement following the strike suspension:
Now that the parties have agreed to resume their roles in our supply chain success, South Carolina’s maritime community stands prepared to deliver for shippers, including manufacturers, farmers and retailers, who utilize our port facilities to access global markets. Let’s get to work!”
Sen. Lindsay Graham also released a statement, stating that he is glad this strike is over and hopes to continue to help the public.
“Very good news indeed for suffering people throughout the Southeast that the port strike is over. It was beginning to have a devastating effect, adding misery to pain. I am glad this man-made disaster is behind us. Now we will have more resources to help the devastated.”
The dockworkers went on strike at 36 ports from Maine to Texas including the Port of Charleston at midnight on Tuesday seeking higher wages and the ban on the use of some automated equipment.
The strike came at the peak of the holiday shopping season at the ports, which handle about half the cargo from ships coming into and out of the United States.
But in South Carolina, one of the states affected by Hurricane Helene, leaders expressed an even more grave concern: that the port strike could stop supplies needed for storm relief from getting to the people who were most in need.
President Joe Biden visited the Carolinas on Wednesday to survey the damage. During that meeting, Graham and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster said they urged the president to take action on the strike.
“I’m all for people being treated fairly but I’ve urged President Biden not to let this go on much longer,” Graham said at a medical needs shelter in Greenville Wednesday afternoon after meeting with Biden. “What have I learned from my doctors today? That the hospitals are going to run out of supplies, and a lot of it comes from the port.”
Graham said $200 million of daily economic activity and 7,000 trucks in and out of the port to pick up and deliver goods were all completely shut down.
“This hurricane was Mother Nature. The port problem is manmade,” he said.
“The longer it lasts, the worst it’ll get,” McMaster said. “That’s why we asked President Biden today to consider, under the Taft-Hartley Act, that says that if a strike is a threat to the health or safety of the nation, that it can be enjoined for a period. So that’s what we’re hoping that he will do that if it’s not settled, not settled immediately.”
Dr. Ed Simmer, the interim director of the state’s Department of Public Health, said the state’s hospitals are going through a lot of medical supplies and pharmacies and doctor’s offices that have lost power will have to replace many of the medications that need to be refrigerated.
“But many of those things, many of those medical supplies, come through our ports. The longer this strike goes, the harder it’s going to be for us to get the medical supplies we need to get back on our feet,” Simmer said. “So certainly, the sooner that strike ends, the better it’ll be for the health of the people of South Carolina.”
Port workers are set to return to work on Friday.
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