Automation was at the center of a long-running labor dispute that threatened to close East and Gulf Coast ports.

The United States Maritime Alliance said on Wednesday it reached a tentative agreement on a new six-year master contract with the International Longshoremen’s Association.

The longshoremen’s union was threatening a work stoppage that could have frozen East and Gulf coast ports days before President-elect Trump takes office.

The union representing 45,000 dock workers on the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts and their employers on Wednesday said they reached a tentative deal on a new six-year contract, averting further strikes that could have snarled supply chains and taken a toll on the U.

Dockworkers represented by the International Longshoremen’s Association negotiated to avoid a second port strike in a matter of months.

Dockworkers and employers on the East and Gulf Coasts had until Jan. 15 to reach a new agreement that settled differences over automation.

By Lisa Baertlein, Daniel Wiessner LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -A tentative labor deal forestalled potentially damaging trade disruptions at three-dozen U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico ports, with both sides in the talks crediting President-elect Donald Trump for clearing the way for them to hammer out a deal on automation.

A tentative agreement between a dockworkers union and a shippers association was announced Wednesday night, averting a Jan. 15 strike deadline that experts said might have been tough to endure. No details about how the proposed pact were announced between the International Longshoremen’s Association union and the United States Maritime Alliance,

An agreement on automation and job preservation was crucial to the six-year agreement between the union and management at major East and Gulf Coast ports.

The United States Maritime Alliance said on Tuesday it reached a tentative agreement on a new six-year master contract with the International Longshoremen’s Association.