Houston-area longshoremen along with thousands of other workers announced an end to their strike Thursday while they broker a new contract with port operators and distributors, ending a three-day work stoppage that threatened to send shock waves through the economy.

Port of Houston dockworkers have joined the nearly 50,000 striking from Texas to Maine. ILA union demands fair wages, automation ban in new contract.

Experts expect dockworkers at the Port of Houston to go on strike Tuesday at ports from Maine to Brownsville, including the Port of Houston. "It's happening," said Margaret Kidd, program director and professor of supply chain and logistics technology at the University of Houston.

The affected ports handle roughly 43 percent of U.S. imports according to ITS Logistics, a supply chain and logistics company. In Houston, a prolonged strike could mean that the Bayport and Barbours Cut Gate container terminals would be closed indefinitely, freezing trade until the ILA and USMX come to an agreement.

More than $100 million a day of both imports and exports could be jeopardized if workers at the Port of Houston go on strike when their contract expires in six days.

Thousands of unionized dockworkers on the East and Gulf Coasts went on strike Tuesday morning, stranding cargo and sending ripples through supply chains for consumer goods and manufacturing parts. A contract between the operators of port terminals and the International Longshoremen’s Association,

Workers began walking picket lines early Tuesday in a strike over wages and automation, even though some progress had been reported in latest contract talks. The contract between the ports and about 45,

Houston trucking companies said they're already feeling the impact of the workers' strike because they can't move anything.

Port of Houston dockworkers are on strike, joining thousands of unionized longshoremen along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts after the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) failed to reach a new labor contract agreement with the union.