06:36 AM EDT, 10/04/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The International Longshoremen's Association union ended its strike across the East and Gulf Coast ports late Thursday after reaching a tentative agreement on wages with the United States Maritime Alliance.

In a joint statement, the ILA and the USMX said they finalized a tentative deal on wages and agreed to extend their contract until Jan. 15, giving both parties time to resume negotiations for "all other outstanding issues."

"Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease, and all work covered by the master contract will resume," according to the joint statement. The ILA represents about 85,000 dockworkers, while the USMX alliance represents terminal operators and ocean carriers.

The ILA and the USMX didn't immediately respond to MT Newswires' request for additional details on the terms of the new wage agreement.

Earlier in the week, tens of thousands of dockworkers began picketing at waterfront facilities on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts after their union rejected the final proposal by the USMX on a new contract. This prompted a shuttering of ports from Maine to Texas and raised concerns about the economic cost of the stoppage on companies and consumers.

In its previous proposal, the USMX offered to increase wages by "nearly 50%" and "retain the current language around automation and semi-automation," among other benefits in the contract. However, the ILA said the offer "fell short" of what its members were demanding in wages and protections against automation for them to ratify the contract.

The strike represented the first shutdown of the ports in almost 50 years.

In a Tuesday client note, BofA Securities predicted the strike to last no more than a few days or weeks before President Joe Biden invoked the Taft-Hartley Act to reopen the ports. "Wage negotiations might be resolved by political pressure, but automation is a difficult issue for both sides and will inevitably take time with negotiations having stalled in recent months," according to the brokerage.