The new offer, up from an earlier proposed raise of 50%, came after the White House privately and publicly pressed the large shipping lines and cargo terminal operators who employ the longshore workers to make a new offer to the union.

Many of the ports opened Friday to begin clearing containers that had remained on docks and to clear a backlog of more than 40 containerships that transportation data firm Xeneta said had gathered at sea. Some ports, at places like New York-New Jersey and Norfolk, Va., said it would take a day or so to resume full operations.

President Biden applauded the agreement, saying in a statement, “collective bargaining works, and it is critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”

The International Longshoremen’s Association and port operators, in a joint statement, said the tentative agreement would extend the prior contract, which expired at the start of this week, through Jan. 15, 2025, while the two sides negotiate on other issues, including automation on the docks.

The latest offer would raise the base hourly rate for ILA port workers to $63 from $39 over six years, the people familiar with the matter said. One of the people said the offer is being made on the condition that dockworkers go back to work and agree to efficiency gains.

The offer is less than the union demand for an increase of 77% over the term of the contract but a far larger increase than most major labor contracts, including a contract reached last year covering the separate union representing West Coast longshore workers. …

The cost of the higher wages will be borne by cargo owners and shipping lines that manage the port terminals. Global giants such as Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk and China’s Cosco Shipping operate many of the boxships that unload at U.S. ports.

Stocks of big shipping companies including Maersk, Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd and Cosco fell sharply Friday on news of the deal, which will bring higher costs and ended expectations of higher freight rates that would have been triggered by the labor disruptions. …

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(Excerpt from The Wall Street Journal. Photo Credit: Andreas Dittberner on Unsplash)