In the latest sign of the growing strength of the labor movement in the United States, a three-day strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) at ports on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts was suspended Thursday, after the United States Maritime Alliance, a coalition of shipping companies, agreed to raise wages by 62% over the next six years.

Analysts say the strike demonstrates the increasingly muscular stance the labor movement has adopted in the post-pandemic U.S. economy.

“The short and effective strike by port workers is in line with what we’ve been seeing in other industries in the past few years,” Todd E. Vachon, director of the Labor Education Action Research Network at Rutgers University, told VOA in an email exchange.

“From autoworkers to Hollywood workers to academic workers and health care professionals, unions have been increasingly using the strike as a tool to make major gains at the bargaining table during a period of increased cost of living and record income inequality,” said Vachon.

Details remain

The agreement between the ILA and the shipping industry leaves a number of issues unresolved, including the status of modernization efforts that could cost some union members jobs, and the funding of retirement accounts. Because of the unresolved issues, ILA members could return to the picket lines as soon as January if no further agreement is reached.

However, the agreement announced late Thursday put a halt to a job action with potential to seriously hobble the U.S. economy in the weeks leading up to next month’s presidential election.

In a terse statement released Thursday, the union’s leadership said that it had “reached a tentative agreement on wages and have agreed to extend the Master Contract until January 15, 2025, to return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues.”

String of union wins

The ILA’s success is the most recent in a number of high-profile job actions over the past 18 months, most of which have ended with significant gains for American workers.

Last year, the United Auto Workers mounted a successful strike against the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. The 46-day job action resulted in higher wages, improved overtime policies and better retirement benefits, among other measures.

Other successful strikes were called by the Writers Guild of America, which represents film and television screenwriters, and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The actions resulted in wage increases and protections against actors’ likenesses being reproduced by artificial intelligence.

Other union victories included a strike by the graduate student employees at the University of Michigan and by the 75,000 employees of the Kaiser Permanente health care consortium.

In the latest sign of the growing strength of the labor movement in the United States, a three-day strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) at ports on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts was suspended Thursday, after the United States Maritime Alliance, a coalition of shipping companies, agreed to raise wages by 62% over the next six years.

Analysts say the strike demonstrates the increasingly muscular stance the labor movement has adopted in the post-pandemic U.S. economy.

“The short and effective strike by port workers is in line with what we’ve been seeing in other industries in the past few years,” Todd E. Vachon, director of the Labor Education Action Research Network at Rutgers University, told VOA in an email exchange.

“From autoworkers to Hollywood workers to academic workers and health care professionals, unions have been increasingly using the strike as a tool to make major gains at the bargaining table during a period of increased cost of living and record income inequality,” said Vachon.

Details remain

The agreement between the ILA and the shipping industry leaves a number of issues unresolved, including the status of modernization efforts that could cost some union members jobs, and the funding of retirement accounts. Because of the unresolved issues, ILA members could return to the picket lines as soon as January if no further agreement is reached.

However, the agreement announced late Thursday put a halt to a job action with potential to seriously hobble the U.S. economy in the weeks leading up to next month’s presidential election.

In a terse statement released Thursday, the union’s leadership said that it had “reached a tentative agreement on wages and have agreed to extend the Master Contract until January 15, 2025, to return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues.”

String of union wins

The ILA’s success is the most recent in a number of high-profile job actions over the past 18 months, most of which have ended with significant gains for American workers.

Last year, the United Auto Workers mounted a successful strike against the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. The 46-day job action resulted in higher wages, improved overtime policies and better retirement benefits, among other measures.

Other successful strikes were called by the Writers Guild of America, which represents film and television screenwriters, and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The actions resulted in wage increases and protections against actors’ likenesses being reproduced by artificial intelligence.

Other union victories included a strike by the graduate student employees at the University of Michigan and by the 75,000 employees of the Kaiser Permanente health care consortium.

•Trucks line up to enter Port Miami after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. PHOTO: AP.