A tentative wage agreement has reopened container and vehicle terminals on the Atlantic Seaboard and Gulf Coast ended their strike that paralysed container and vehicle terminals for three days.
Neither the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA) or the employers group have detailed the deal, which extended an existing contract until January.
But sources told various media outlets that the ILA has agreed with the US Maritime Alliance (USMX) to a $4-per-hour raise each year for the six-year contract.
That results in a 62% increase over the life of the contract, below the 77% that the union was looking for but above the 50% offer by USMX on the eve of the strike.
The current contract, which is published on the USMX website, puts 2023 pay at between $20 per hour for new longshore workers and $39 for those who have worked in.
That means top-paid get $43 per hour in the first year of the new contract.
Before the contract was set to end on Monday, USMX had described its offer as “industry leading” wage hikes, while the ILA had described the employers’ offers as “stingy” at a time when container lines were still enjoying large profits.
No docker will become wealthy from the tentatively agreed wage hike.
The $43-per-hour top pay in the first year implies an annual salary of $89,400, assuming an eight-hour workday.
TradeWinds analysed average wage data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for more than 1,000 job categories.
| Profession | Average hourly wage |
| Pediatric surgeon | $228.77 |
| Marine engineers and naval architects | $55.05 |
| Logisticians | $43.09 |
| Top-paid dockworkers under ILA-USMX contract | $43 |
| Transportation inspector | $42.73 |
| Sailors and marine oilers | $25.71 |
| Shampooers | $14.09 |
This data uses May 2023 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, adjusted for wage inflation since then, as well as a CNN report of the agreed wage under the ILA-USMX contract.
The top dockworker wage under the contract is 15.9% higher than the average hourly pay of all of those professions, when adjusted for wage inflation since May 2023, when the data was collected.
According to TradeWinds’ calculations, that is far below the $226 implied hourly wage of paediatric surgeons, which is the best-paid profession in the data. And it is well above the $14.90 a shampooer, the lowest paid job in the dataset.
When adjusted for wage inflation, $43 per hour is around the wage of a transportation inspector, logistical, landscape architect, funeral manager, insurance underwriter, electric power line installer or editor.
Vessel crew members categorised as “sailors or marine inspectors” would earn $27.23 if wage inflation is applied to the 2023 numbers, while marine engineers and naval architects would earn $55.05.
The ILA wages are somewhat lower than the pay at West Cost, where even a basic longshore worker has been earning $54.85 since June under a contract between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
One salary that has come under scrutiny is ILA president Harold Daggett, who made far more than the dockworkers he represents. He earned a salary of $902,000 in 2023, according to Newsweek.
