Port Strike Ends: Bettors Lose

DETROIT  — The union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports reached a deal Thursday to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract.

Only 14% of gamblers betting the port strike market believed a deal would be reached by week's end.

The contract between the ports and about 45,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association expired at midnight on Tuesday, and even though progress was reported in talks on Monday, the workers opted to go on strike. The strike affecting 36 ports is the first by the union since 1977.

Workers began picketing at the Port of Philadelphia shortly after midnight Monday, walking in a circle at a rail crossing outside the port and chanting “No work without a fair contract.”

With the strike effectively over, 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 walkout raised the risk of shortages of goods on store shelves if it lasted more than a few weeks. Most retailers, though, had stocked up or shipped items early in anticipation of the dockworkers’ strike.

“With the grace of God, and the goodwill of neighbors, it’s gonna hold,” President Joe Biden told reporters Thursday night after the agreement.

In a statement later, Biden applauded both sides “for acting patriotically to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helene recovery and rebuilding.”

Biden said that collective bargaining is “critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”