LOS ANGELES — Negotiators reached a tentative contract covering West Coast dock workers Friday evening, likely ending a protracted labor dispute that snarled international trade at seaports handling about $1 trillion of cargo annually.
The breakthrough came after nine months of negotiations that turned contentious in the fall, when dock workers and their employers began blaming each other for problems getting imports to consumers and exports overseas.
The five-year deal still must be approved by the 13,000-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s rank-and-file. They work 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle that handle about one-quarter of all U.S. international trade, much of it with Asia.
Negotiators for the union and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents ocean-going shipping lines and the companies that load and unload cargo at port terminals, began talking formally in May. Their prior six-year contract expired July 1.
