Negotiators have reached a tentative agreement to end a week-long strike at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Clerical workers from a local office of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have agreed to a new contract with the terminal operators at the ports, Villaraigosa announced late Tuesday in the US.
The union said it may resume work on Wednesday.
The strike at the key US transport gateway, which handles 40% of US maritime imports, mainly from Asia, has cost billions of dollars to the local and wider US economy. It shut down 10 of the 14 cargo container terminals at the complex and forced container ships to divert to other ports in California, notably Oakland, up the coast near San Francisco, and Mexico.
The striking clerical workers said they had been without contracts since June 2010, and the two sides had argued over whether or not the employers could outsource the jobs of union workers who retired or left for other employment.
Photo from http://www.portoflosangeles.org/
