The US could have seen shortages and higher retail prices if a dockworkers strike had dragged on WSOC TV [Video]

NEW YORK — (AP) — U.S. ports from Maine to Texas shut down this week when the union representing about 45,000 dockworkers went on strike for the first time since 1977.

Workers began walking picket lines early Tuesday near ports all along the East and Gulf coasts.

A shutdown lasting more than a few weeks would have had the potential to raise prices and create shortages of goods throughout the country as the holiday shopping season — along with a tight presidential election — approaches.

But the union representing the striking U.S. dockworkers, the International Longshoremen’s Association, reached a deal Thursday to suspend the strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. The union’s members will resume working immediately at least until January.

What are the issues in the dockworkers strike?

The union is demanding significantly higher wages and a total ban on the automation of cranes, gates and container-moving trucksthat are used in the loading or unloading …