West Coast Ports, Dockworkers Agree to Labor Contract Extension

By Erica E. Phillips and Jennifer Smith Updated Aug. 4, 2017 9:02 pm ET

LOS ANGELES—Retailers, manufacturers and other shippers that move their goods through West Coast ports are experiencing something unfamiliar: the prospect of years of tranquil labor relations there.

Dockworkers agreed this week to extend their labor contract with West Coast port operators by three years, to July 2022. Ratified Friday, the extension pushes off labor negotiations into the next decade, and with it, the prospect of a repeat of the contentious talks of 2014 and early 2015, when operations at the nation’s busiest ports ground to a near-standstill.