$35 billion to meet demands of US East Coast dockworkers, prevent further strikes

Over 45,000 US dockworkers represented by the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) voted to ratify a new six-year contract on Tuesday, formalizing a deal which briefly stopped work at ports stretching from Maine to Texas in October.

Terms of the contract, previously agreed upon by the labor union and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), included a 62 per cent wage hike over the life of the agreement.

The new contract, which is retroactive to October 1, 2024 and will be in effect until September 30, 2030, boosts the hourly base rate for workers to $63 from $39, ranking longshoremen among the highest paid blue-collar workers in the country.

It accelerates wage raises for new ILA workers, strengthens healthcare plans and also increases employer contributions to retirement plans, while safeguarding workers from threats of increased automation.

ILA President Harold Daggett has said the new contract will cost employers an estimated $35 billion, "and that's a conservative estimate."

"Our collective strength helped produce the richest contract in our history," he said in a video to the members of the union last week.

The ILA and USMX will formally sign the new contract on March 11, according to a social media post by the union on Tuesday.

In talks which started early last year, both the labor union and the employer group came to an agreement over wages in October, putting an end to a three-day strike which caused a spike in shipping prices and cargo backlogs at the three dozen affected ports.

However, both the parties remained divided over issues related to automation. It was not until January that a tentative deal was signed, which also remained a priority for the White House.

Both the ILA and USMX have previously credited President Donald Trump for clearing the way for them to make a deal on automation.

The 36 affected ports were some of the busiest in the US including the port of New York and New Jersey and together account for more than half of the country's imports.

The employer group, represented by USMX, counts Maersk's APM Terminals and the US arms of major container carriers such as China's COSCO Shipping as some of its members.

(Reporting by Abhinav Parmar and Nilutpal Timsina in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)