WILMINGTON — Less than two days after one of the largest United States port strikes in modern history ignited, both the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) announced it had reached a tentative agreement Thursday night.
The agreement extends the existing contract until Jan. 15 so that both ILA officials and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents major shipping lines owned by international companies, as well as terminal operators and port authorities. Several media reports indicate that union workers will see a raise of $4 an hour on top of a current base pay of $39 hourly wage, resulting in an immediate raise of more than 10%.
The tentative deal means that thousands of union members will see their pay raised a total of $24 an hour during the six year contract, resulting in a 62% raise over the course of the deal.
At the Port of Wilmington, where the ILA Local 1694 had between 200 and 300 union members, the end of the strike meant the end of near constant demonstrations – even as some dockworkers handled cargo from at least one container ship that held fruits and bananas.
The Chiquita Voyager, a 222 meter-long container port docked at Wilmington’s port on Oct. 1 and departed at 7 p.m. on Oct. 3, headed to Guatemala for its next shipment. Local 1694 President Bill Ashe confirmed to the Delaware Business Times that the union members handled the cargo.
“There was an exemption for perishables, and most of what’s in the river isn’t perishable,” Ashe told the Delaware Business Times. “We mostly handle Dole and Chiquita, so while it was work, it was some work on boats that were going in on a berthing fee [to dock there] outside of USMX. That’s all we handled.”
The Port of Wilmington is expecting three vessels in the next six days: two container shipments, including the Chiquita Voyager, on its return as well as Dole Chile. The third ship is a fruit juice tanker, expected to arrive in the afternoon of Oct. 10.
Delaware’s only port — which is planned for a multi-million dollar upgrade —is well known for its imports of fresh fruits, notably bananas. Both Dole and Chiquita ship more than 1.5 million tons of bananas to Wilmington via container ship from Central and South America.
While the threat of a slow-down of consumer goods loomed long and panic-buying spikes in Delaware, experts note there would be little downstream impact for now. Everstream Analytics Senior Manager of Global Risk Intelligence told DBT that her firm estimated that the port shut down would have to be between one and two weeks to see a disruption in transporting agriculture products, fresh food wares and auto parts. Other retail items, household goods and more could see more impact in a month if the strike stretched out that long.
Like many port operators on the East and Gulf Coasts, Enstructure has not made an in-depth statement on how customers will be supported through the strike, and that stance is likely to continue until a final agreement between ILA and USMX is reached.
Meanwhile, for dockworkers like Ashe, the pause on the strike means it’s back to business as usual until the next word comes down. He told DBT that he and the 1,000 other union members in his region were notified about a year ago by ILA Union President Harold Daggett a strike was a possibility, so he was well prepared.
“This isn’t my first strike, I’ve been on the waterfront for 49 years,” Ashe said, noting he was on the picket line in the last coast to coast strike in 1977. “We understand ships, and we are the ones that handle the cargo — not greed. Some made $9 billion a quarter [between 2020 and 2023].”
“The more people understand what is really going on, the better it is for us all,” he added.
