A tentative contract was reached last Friday evening between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association. The agreement comes after nine months of negotiations that heated up this past fall, crippling ports from San Diego to Seattle. A joint statement released by PMA President James McKenna and ILWU President Bob McEllrath states, “We are pleased to have reached an agreement that is good for workers and for the industry. We are also pleased that our ports can now resume full operations.” This is welcome news to a U.S. economy that sees about one-quarter of all international trade through the West Coast ports, mostly with Asia. The agreement was reached in San Francisco with the help of Labor Secretary Tom Perez, who is still not sure how long the cargo backlog will take to clear up.
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