And the Strike is Over Suspended

Following an improved offer on wages, the International Longshoremen’s Association has agreed to suspend its strike until January while further negotiations continue.

Basically, I think that the United States Maritime Alliance expected Biden to invoke Taft-Hartley to force the longshoremen back to work, and Bidens strident refusal to do so, basically f%$# no, forced them back to the bargaining table:

The International Longshoremen’s Association agreed on Thursday to suspend a strike that closed down major ports on the East and Gulf Coasts. The move followed an improved wage offer from port employers.

The strike, which the dockworkers’ union began on Tuesday, threatened to weigh on the economy five weeks before national elections. Employers, represented by the United States Maritime Alliance, have offered to increase wages by 62 percent over the course of a new six-year contract, according to a person familiar with negotiations who did not want to be identified because the talks were continuing. That increase is lower than what the union had initially asked for, but much higher than the alliance’s earlier offer.

As an FYI, that's about a 10.1% a year increase per year when you figure in compounding.

In a statement, the union said that it had reached “a tentative agreement on wages” and that its 45,000 members would go back to work, with the current contract extended until Jan. 15. The union said it was returning to the bargaining table “to negotiate all other outstanding issues.” The alliance issued a similar statement.

The agreement came after the White House pressed both sides to reach a deal to end the strike, the union’s first full-scale walkout since 1977. The wage increase is a clear victory for the I.L.A. and its combative president, Harold J. Daggett, a 78-year-old, third-generation dockworker who has led the union since 2011.

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 A 62 percent increase would raise the top longshoremen’s wage to just over $63 per hour at the end of a new six-year contract, from today’s $39 per hour. And at $63 an hour, the wages of East and Gulf Coast longshoremen would slightly exceed those that will be earned by West Coast longshoremen, who belong to a different union, at the end of their contract in 2027.

In the resumed talks, the issue of how much automation can occur at the ports could divide the sides. The union has also been pressing for improved retirement benefits.

Another potential sticking point is the pay of longshoremen who are just starting out and don’t earn the top wage rate. Mr. Daggett’s son, Dennis A. Daggett, a senior official at the I.L.A., said in an interview on Tuesday on a picket line in Bayonne, N.J., that the union wanted to get higher wages for less experienced members.

This is a good thing, though I would have preferred that the union suspend the strike for a shorter period. If Trump wins, they will have to conclude negotiations with the certainty of a Taft-Hartley back to work order on January 21.