The East and Gulf Coast port strike ended on October 4, 2024, after the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) reached a tentative wage agreement. That deal reopened affected ports while negotiations continued. The parties later signed a six-year contract extension in 2025, effective through September 30, 2030.
When did the port strike end?
The ILA strike began at midnight on September 30, 2024, and affected 14 Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA says the strike was lifted on October 4, after the parties reached a tentative agreement on October 3. The agreement allowed port operations to resume while bargaining continued; it was not yet the completed long-term contract.
At the time, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the agreement offered “a path forward to reopen ports” and keep essential goods moving, including supplies for areas affected by Hurricane Helene. He also credited the negotiations and government leadership, saying: “This tentative agreement to get workers a historic and much-deserved raise would not be possible without the leadership of President Biden, Vice President Harris, the ILA, and the USMX member companies.”
What did the October 2024 agreement settle—and what did it leave open?
The October arrangement ended the immediate work stoppage and extended negotiations over the broader contract. It should not be confused with the agreement completed in 2025. The distinction matters: ports returned to work in October, but the parties still had to finalize the terms governing wages, benefits, working conditions and workplace protections.
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What is in the six-year ILA-USMX contract?
USMX announced that the parties officially signed the Master Contract extension on March 11, 2025. It is effective from October 1, 2024, through September 30, 2030, according to USMX’s signing announcement. The EPA describes the contract as approved and signed in February 2025; these accounts identify different milestones, so February approval and the March 11 official signing should not be treated as the same event.
The ILA’s Master Contract page describes the agreement as covering USMX on behalf of management and the ILA, its affiliated districts and locals, representing longshoremen, clerks, checkers and maintenance employees at East and Gulf Coast ship and terminal workplaces. The ILA page links to the full Master Contract and Memorandum of Settlement.
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Wages and benefits
In its announcement, USMX reported ILA President Harold Daggett’s description of the package as including a 62 percent wage increase, accelerated wage raises for new workers, a medical plan, increased contributions to money-purchase plans, and the return of container royalty funds to the ILA. The 62 percent figure is the union president’s characterization as reported by USMX, not a separate independent analysis of every worker’s pay or the timing of individual increases.
Automation and job protections
Daggett also described the package as providing full protection against automation. USMX, for its part, said the agreement protects current ILA jobs while creating a framework for technologies intended to modernize East and Gulf Coast ports. Its collective-bargaining overview frames the Master Contract as the shared basis for negotiating wages, benefits, working conditions and workplace protections.
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Those statements point to a negotiated balance between job protections and modernization, not a blanket ban on port technology. The available official descriptions do not establish that all automation-related disputes or changes have been eliminated.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the agreement means for port operations and consumers
The October 2024 deal brought the immediate strike to an end and allowed affected ports to resume operations. The subsequent six-year contract set the longer-term employment framework for the covered East and Gulf Coast workers. For consumers and businesses, the practical significance of the first agreement was the reopening of ports and movement of essential goods; the completed contract addressed the underlying labor relationship on a longer horizon.
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The official sources cited here do not provide a reliable figure for total economic losses, the strike-caused cargo backlog or post-strike delays. Claims about a dollar cost or a specific recovery timeline therefore cannot be established from these accounts.
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