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After two days of negotiations in Orlando, delegates representing 58 locals voted for the agreement, with nine locals opposed. The contract extension will be submitted to the union's members for ratification on Nov. 17, potentially extending a long period of labor peace at ports in the regions and quieting an uproar that has grown in the union over the contract talks.

ILA President Richard Hughes said he is confident the extension will win rank-and-file approval. He said the agreement a year ahead of the Sept. 30, 2010, expiration of the current pact will prevent shippers from routing cargo away from ILA ports. "This is a stabilizing force for our industry," he said.

James Capo, chairman of United States Maritime Alliance, said members of the USMX management also want an early agreement that would avoid the need for bargaining against a contract expiration deadline next year. He said container ship lines in USMX expect heavy losses to continue next year.

"As far as we were concerned, it made a lot of sense not to have to sit down and bargain next year, particularly in these economic times," he said. "We received a lot of cargo after the West Coast port shutdown in 2002. We've retained most of it and we don't want to be in a position to send it back."

Members of the Longshore Workers Coalition, an activist group, had opposed early negotiations. The LWC said it was unhappy with the tentative contract extension and would seek to persuade ILA members to reject the pact.

Negotiators spent the last two days working out a revised agreement that contained several provisions designed to secure union approval of the deal:

Under the agreement, management backed off an earlier proposal for a one-year delay in an across-the-board pay raise scheduled to take effect Thursday, the start of the final year of the current six-year agreement. Pay for new hires would immediately increase to $20 an hour from $16.

Also under the contract plan:

- Caps on carrier contributions to container royalty funds that fund union benefits would be removed. To offset the cost of allowing the immediate wage increase, carriers would be exempted from a portion of their royalty payments during the next 12 months.

- Dockworkers in lower wage tiers would graduate to the top scale of $31 an hour in 2012 after nine years of experience, instead of 11 under an earlier proposal. Lesser increases would narrow the gap for workers after their third, fifth and seventh years on the job.

- A union-management committee would be established to analyze the impact of technology and its effect on ILA jurisdiction and jobs. Management would retain the right to introduce new technology, which had been a flashpoint in the negotiations.

- New procedures would speed the implementation of decisions by an existing labor-management committee on work jurisdiction.