The port strike is over. Here’s what happens next

It took only three days for one side to blink and the potentially crippling strike at the United States’ East and Gulf Coast ports to come to an end, with likely only limited damage to America’s economy.

It took only three days for one side to blink and the potentially crippling strike at the United States’ East and Gulf Coast ports to come to an end, with likely only limited damage to America’s economy. Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, the union representing 50,000 members covered under the contract with the United States Maritime Alliance, were back on the job early Friday after the two sides reached an agreement on the key dispute in the strike that started early Tuesday – the scale of wage increases. The work stoppage had threatened to disrupt supply chains, causing shortages of some consumer goods and supplies needed to keep US factories running. It also temporarily cut off the flow of many American exports, putting overseas sales at risk for some US businesses. But relatively little damage was done, with the strike lasting only three days, especially since many shippers had rushed to move their goods through the ports ahead of the 12:01 am Tuesday start of the strike, a deadline that had been known for months. The maritime alliance, which operates under the acronym USMX, agreed to raises of $4 an hour for the union members on top of the current base pay of $39 an hour, an immediate raise of just more than 10%, according to a person familiar with the deal. Then union members will get additional $4-per-hour raises every year during the life of the six-year tentative deal. That will raise pay by a total of $24 an hour during the life of the contract, or by 62% in total. The union had been willing to consider the $4-an-hour deal before the strike, union boss Harold Daggett said on the picket line outside the Port of New York and New Jersey early Tuesday, soon after the start of the strike. But when the company countered with a $3-an-hour offer, he rejected it with colorful language and took his members out on their first strike since 1977.