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Dockworkers' union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract

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Dockworkers' union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract
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Dockworkers' union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract

2024-10-05 22:38 Last Updated At:22:41

DETROIT (AP) — Some 45,000 dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports are returning to work after their union reached a deal to suspend a strike that could have caused shortages and higher prices if it had dragged on.

The International Longshoremen’s Association is suspending its three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. The union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shipping companies, said in a joint statement that they have reached a tentative agreement on wages.

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Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Trucks line up at Port Miami Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Trucks line up at Port Miami Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

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, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

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, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Work is completely stopped at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Work is completely stopped at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Longshoremen walk the picket line at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Longshoremen walk the picket line at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Stacked containers line the Bayport Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Stacked containers line the Bayport Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Dockworkers' union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract

Dockworkers' union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract

Dockworkers' union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract

Dockworkers' union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract

Dockworkers from Port Miami display signs at a picket line, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers from Port Miami display signs at a picket line, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

A person briefed on the agreement said the ports sweetened their wage offer from about 50% over six years to 62%. The person didn’t want to be identified because the agreement is tentative. Any wage increase would have to be approved by union members as part of the ratification of a final contract.

Talks now turn to the automation of ports, which the unions says will lead to fewer jobs, and other sticking points.

The settlement pushes the strike and any potential shortages past the November presidential election, eliminating a potential liability for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. It’s also a big plus for the Biden-Harris administration, which has billed itself as the most union-friendly in American history. Shortages could have driven up prices and reignited inflation.

It will take a day or two for the ports to restart machinery and for ships waiting at sea to get to a berth, but even so, consumers aren’t likely to see any shortages because the strike was relatively short, said William Brucher, an assistant professor of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University who follows ports.

“I think the disruptions are going to be rather minimal and consumers aren’t really going to feel them,” Brucher said.

Supply chain experts say that for every day of a port strike, it takes four to six days to recover. That means it will take probably about 20 days to recover, said Brucher. But during those 20 days, Longshoremen will be gradually increasing their capacity to handle freight until they hit normal levels.

The union went on strike early Tuesday after its contract expired in a dispute over pay and the automation of tasks at 36 ports stretching from Maine to Texas. The strike came at the peak of the holiday season at the ports, which handle about half the cargo from ships coming into and out of the United States.

Most retailers had stocked up or shipped items early in anticipation of the strike.

“With the grace of God, and the goodwill of neighbors, it’s gonna hold,” President Joe Biden told reporters Thursday night after the agreement.

In a statement later, Biden applauded both sides “for acting patriotically to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helene recovery and rebuilding.”

Biden said that collective bargaining is “critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”

The union's membership won't need to vote on the temporary suspension of the strike. Until Jan. 15, the workers will be covered under the old contract, which expired on Sept. 30.

The union had been demanding a 77% raise over six years, plus a complete ban on the use of automation at the ports, which members see as a threat to their jobs. Both sides also have been apart on the issues of pension contributions and the distribution of royalties paid on containers that are moved by workers.

Thomas Kohler, who teaches labor and employment law at Boston College, said the agreement to halt the strike means that the two sides are close to a final deal.

“I’m sure that if they weren’t going anywhere they wouldn’t have suspended (the strike),” he said. “They’ve got wages. They’ll work out the language on automation, and I’m sure that what this really means is it gives the parties time to sit down and get exactly the language they can both live with.”

ILA President Harold Daggett has been seeking an outright ban on anything that would cost human jobs. But shipping companies want more flexibility to automate at a faster pace in order to compete against more efficient facilities that already use the technology, said Thomas Kochan, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Institute for Work and Employment Research.

Although automation does indeed eliminate some jobs, as workers legitimately fear, it also tends to create new ones, in part because equipment must be maintained and set up for different tasks, Kochan said. The companies could agree to include such jobs in the union membership.

“There are ways to address those fears both by providing job security for those people who are displaced and also the ability then to take on the new jobs that are created,” he said. “That’s the sweet spot that I suspect they are trying to find in these final negotiations over automation.”

Just before the strike had begun, the Maritime Alliance, which represents ports and shippers, said both sides had moved off their original wage offers, a tentative sign of progress.

Thursday's deal came after Biden administration officials met with foreign-owned shipping companies before dawn on Zoom, according to a person briefed on the day's events who asked not to be identified because the talks were private. The White House wanted to increase pressure to settle, emphasizing the responsibility to reopen the ports to help with recovery from Hurricane Helene, the person said.

Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su told them she could get the union to the bargaining table to extend the contract if the carriers made a higher wage offer. Chief of Staff Jeff Zients told the carriers they had to make an offer by the end of the day so a manmade strike wouldn't worsen a natural disaster, the person said.

By midday the Maritime Alliance members agreed to a large increase, bringing about the agreement, according to the person.

AP Writers Darlene Superville and Josh Boak in Washington and Annie Mulligan in Houston contributed to this report.

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Trucks line up at Port Miami Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Trucks line up at Port Miami Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers return to work at Port Miami, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami, after the union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at East and Gulf coast ports has reached a deal to suspend a three-day strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

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, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

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, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Work is completely stopped at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Work is completely stopped at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Longshoremen walk the picket line at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Longshoremen walk the picket line at the Barbours Cut Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Stacked containers line the Bayport Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Stacked containers line the Bayport Container Terminal during the first day of a dockworkers strike on Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Annie Mulligan)

Dockworkers' union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract

Dockworkers' union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract

Dockworkers' union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract

Dockworkers' union suspends strike until Jan. 15 to allow time to negotiate new contract

Dockworkers from Port Miami display signs at a picket line, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Dockworkers from Port Miami display signs at a picket line, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) —

Soaring rhetoric, urgent pleas and pledges of cooperation contrasted with a backdrop of seismic political changes, global wars and economic hardships as United Nations annual climate talks began Monday and got right to the hard part: money.

In Baku, Azerbaijan, where the world's first oil well was drilled and the smell of the fuel was noticeable outdoors, the two-week session, called COP29, got right to the major focus of striking a new deal on how many hundreds of billions — or even trillions — of dollars a year will flow from rich nations to poor to try to curb and adapt to climate change.

The money is to help the developing world transition their energy systems away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy, compensate for climate disasters mostly triggered by carbon pollution from rich nations and adapt to future extreme weather.

“These numbers may sound big but they are nothing compared to the cost of inaction,” the new COP29 president, Mukhtar Babayev, said as he took over. “COP29 is a moment of truth for the Paris Agreement ” which in 2015 set a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

This year, the world is on pace for 1.5 degrees of warming and is heading to become the hottest year in human civilization, the European climate service Copernicus announced earlier this month. But the Paris 1.5 goal is about decades, not one year of that amount of warming.

The effects of climate change in disasters such as hurricanes, droughts and floods are already here and hurting, Babayev said.

“We are on the road to ruin,” Babayev said. “Whether you see them or not, people are suffering in the shadows. They are dying in the dark. And they need more than compassion. More than prayers and paperwork. They are crying out for leadership and action. COP29 is the unmissable moment to chart a new path forward for everyone.”

United Nations Climate Secretary Simon Stiell, whose home island of Carriacou was devasted earlier this year by Hurricane Beryl, used the story of his neighbor, an 85-year-old named Florence, to help find “a way out of this mess.”

Her home was demolished and Florence focused one thing: “Being strong for her family and for her community. There are people like Florence in every country on Earth. Knocked down, and getting back up again.″

That’s what the world must do with climate change, especially with providing money, Stiell said.

“Let’s dispense with any idea that climate finance is charity,” Stiell said. “An ambitious new climate finance goal is entirely in the self-interest of every nation, including the largest and wealthiest” because it will keep future warming from hitting 5 degrees Celsius, where he said the world was going before it started fighting climate change.

In the past year, nation after nation has seen political upheaval, with the latest being in the United States — the largest historic carbon emitter — and Germany, a climate leading nation.

The election of Donald Trump, who disputes climate change and its impact, and the collapse of the German governing coalition are altering climate negotiation dynamics here, experts said.

Initially, Azerbaijan organizers who were hoping to have nations across the globe stop fighting during the two weeks of negotiations. That didn't happen as wars in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere continued.

Dozens of climate activists at the conference — many of them wearing Palestinian keffiyehs — held up banners calling for climate justice and for nations to “stop fueling genocide.”

“All these struggles are intersectional,” said Lise Masson, a protester from Friends of the Earth International. “It's the same systems of oppression and discrimination that are putting people on the frontlines of climate change and putting people on the front lines of conflict in Palestine.” She slammed the United States, the U.K. and the EU for not spending more on climate finance while also supplying arms to Israel.

Mohammed Ursof, a climate activist from Gaza, called for demonstrators at the talks to “get power back to the Indigenous, power back to the people.”

Jacob Johns, a Hopi and Akimel O’odham community organizer, came to the conference with hope for a better world.

“Within sight of the destruction lies the seed of creation,” he said at a panel about Indigenous people’s hopes for climate action. “We have to realize that we are not citizens of one nation, we are the Earth.”

The financial package being hashed out at this year's talks is important because every nation has until early next year to submit new — and presumably stronger — targets for curbing emissions of heat-trapping gases from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. That's part of the 2015 Paris agreement for nations to ratchet up efforts every five years.

The long-term global average temperature is now 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, only two-tenths of a degree from the agreed-upon threshold.

For the world to prevent more than 1.5 degrees of warming, global carbon emissions must be slashed by 42% by 2030, a new United Nations report said.

“We cannot leave Baku without a substantial outcome,” Stiell said. “Now is the time to show that global cooperation is not down for the count. It is rising to the moment.”

Associated Press reporter Sibi Arasu contributed.

Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbears and Melina Walling at @MelinaWalling

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Women walk through the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Women walk through the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Activists demonstrate for climate justice and a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Activists demonstrate for climate justice and a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Activists demonstrate for climate justice and a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Activists demonstrate for climate justice and a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

People walk through an exhibit in the Green Zone at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

People walk through an exhibit in the Green Zone at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

A person walks outside the Baku Olympic Stadium, the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A person walks outside the Baku Olympic Stadium, the venue for the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

People walk through an exhibit in the Green Zone at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

People walk through an exhibit in the Green Zone at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Simon Stiell, United Nations climate chief, speaks during the opening plenary session with images of Hurricane Beryl displayed at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Simon Stiell, United Nations climate chief, speaks during the opening plenary session with images of Hurricane Beryl displayed at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Simon Stiell, United Nations climate chief, speaks during the opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Simon Stiell, United Nations climate chief, speaks during the opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Attendees listen to the opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Attendees listen to the opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, left, hands over the gavel to Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President, during the opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, left, hands over the gavel to Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President, during the opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President, speaks during the opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Mukhtar Babayev, COP29 President, speaks during the opening plenary session at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

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