The validity of the existing workers' contract port offices of U.S. East Coast and Gulf ports will be extended until next January 15. They agreed it in the past few hours the American union International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), the organisation representing the shipping companies, mainly in the container sector, which call at these ports as well as several terminal companies that they operate port terminals. The agreement in principle reached by ILA and USMX expects - the two organizations specified - a return of the two parties at the negotiating table to negotiate all the Other outstanding issues.

The agreement in principle terminates with immediate effect the Strike underway since Tuesday in the American ports of these Regions.

Claiming the success of the intervention in the dispute for The renewal of the contract of the port workers of the President Biden, who had urged the USMX to submit an offer improving on the previous ones ( of 2 October 2024), the US Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, stressed that "this agreement in principle for Giving workers a historic and well-deserved raise would not have been possible without the leadership of President Biden, the Vice President Harris, ILA and USMX member companies. I want to thank - added Buttigieg - all the subjects involved for having put the country first, for having found a way to reopen ports and to ensure that goods including those directed to hard-hit areas from Hurricane Helene, will be circulating again". Thanking the members of the administration he headed to achieve this result, the Secretary of Transport specified that his ministry will continue to coordinate with the different parts of the American supply chains to ensure an orderly recovery activity in ports and 'to encourage good outcome of the next contract negotiations".