According to the Wall Street Journal, a caucus of 90 delegates of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has voted to recommend to its full membership the agreement the union reached with the Pacific Maritime Association in February.

The contract next will be put to a secret ballot of the union’s 20,000 workers at 29 West Coast ports. A final count will occur on May 22. . . .

Logistics and port professionals have said it could take anywhere from three to six months for the supply chain to recover, and some shippers have already moved cargo to ports on the East Coast and elsewhere to diversify their supply networks.

This is important news for Washington businesses that depend on our ports to get goods to market. As the Financial Times noted last month, “The port congestion cut US gross domestic product by $40bn in December alone, analysts at Deutsche Bank estimate.”