By Paul Berger
U.S. dockworkers and their employers agreed to resume formal talks Jan. 7, one week ahead of a potential strike that could shut down ports from Maine to Texas, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
Leaders of the International Longshoremen's Association, which represents tens of thousands of dockworkers, will meet in New Jersey with representatives from the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents port operators and ocean carriers.
The current contract expires on Jan. 15, when dockworkers are threatening to stage a repeat of a three-day strike in October that shut down East Coast and Gulf Coast gateways, including the Port of New York and New Jersey and Georgia's Port of Savannah.
That walkout ended after employers under pressure from the Biden administration agreed to a tentative 62% pay increase over six years. The two sides agreed to extend the contract for three months while they negotiated other issues such as the use of automation on the docks.
The talks broke down in November when union officials bristled at employer plans to expand the use of semi-automated machinery at ports. President-elect Donald Trump in December threw his support behind the dockworkers, saying automation threatens jobs and that foreign-based ocean shipping companies, which control the employer group, should invest in wages instead of machinery.
Write to Paul Berger at paul.berger@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 02, 2025 10:23 ET (15:23 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
免責聲明：投資有風險，本文並非投資建議，以上內容不應被視為任何金融產品的購買或出售要約、建議或邀請，作者或其他用戶的任何相關討論、評論或帖子也不應被視為此類內容。本文僅供一般參考，不考慮您的個人投資目標、財務狀況或需求。TTM對信息的準確性和完整性不承擔任何責任或保證，投資者應自行研究並在投資前尋求專業建議。