(Bloomberg) — West Coast dockworkers and their employers reached a five-year contract deal, averting a shutdown of 29 ports that could have cost the U.S. economy $ 2 billion a day, Labor Secretary Tom Perez said.
"This is now in the rear-view mirror," Perez told reporters outside the San Francisco headquarters of the Pacific Maritime Association, which had been locked in a nine-month contract battle with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
The tentative settlement still needs approval from unionized dockworkers from San Diego to Bellingham, Washington. The ports should resume normal activities by Saturday night, Perez said.
The West Coast ports, responsible for 43.5 percent of U.S. trade, have been operating at reduced capacity since late October as dockworkers slowed cargo movement and port employers cut shifts.
The deal came after Perez gave the dockworkers' union and shipping lines and terminal operators at the ports until the end of Friday to respond to a contract settlement he proposed.
To contact the reporters on this story: James Nash in Los Angeles at jnash24@bloomberg.net; Alison Vekshin in San Francisco at avekshin@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman at smerelman@bloomberg.net Jeffrey Taylor, Stanley James
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