Dockworkers on the East and Gulf Coasts have agreed to suspend the strike after reaching a deal for better pay

Dockworkers striking at the entrance to a container terminal at the Port of Baltimore on Tuesday. The strike was suspended until January after the strikers and their employers reached a tentative agreement on wages.

More than 45,000 striking port workers at docks from Maine to Texas have suspended their strike until January 15 and will return to work on Friday while contract negotiations continue, the union and the organization that represents the ports said on Thursday.

The International Longshoremen’s Association and the United States Maritime Alliance released a joint statement saying they had reached a tentative agreement on wages and “agreed to extend the Master Contract” until January 15. It added that both sides would return to the bargaining table to hash out “all other outstanding issues.”

CNN and the Associated Press were the first to report the strike’s end.

Citing people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported that port employers offered workers a 62% wage increase over the next six years, leading to the first movement in months.

The Journal said the wage offer increased from 50% following pressure from the White House. It added that the 62% increase would up the hourly rate for port workers to $63 from $39 in the coming years.

A CBS News report said the union had demanded a 77% increase for the six-year contract period, a figure that would still put its members’ wages below many of their counterparts on the West Coast.

Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association walked off the job on Tuesday after failing to come to an agreement with the management group that represents shipping lines and port authorities.

The suspension of the strike allows the two sides time to work out the specifics of a new contract, including provisions about automation.

The three-day strike shuttered ports across the East Coast and the Gulf Coast, disrupting the supply chain and affecting items like fruit and car parts. Economic chaos as a result of the strike had also threatened to upend the US presidential election less than five weeks before Election Day.