A temporary deal between longshoremen and maritime employers to raise wages by more than 60 percent has the nation’s ports and the economy rolling again, averting a potential economic crisis before it even began.

The International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance were able to hammer out a tentative agreement for pay increases for the 45,000 workers, increasing their pay by 62 percent over the next six years, according to ABC News. Tens of thousands of dockworkers based along the East and Gulf Coasts will return to work as soon as Friday.

“Effective immediately, all current job actions will cease, and all work covered by the Master Contract will resume,” the ILA and USMX said in a joint statement announcing the agreement.

The new deal would raise hourly wages from the current rate of $39 an hour up to $63 by the end of the contract.

“I want to applaud the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance for coming together to reopen the East Coast and Gulf ports. Today’s tentative agreement on a record wage and an extension of the collective bargaining process represents critical progress towards a strong contract,” President Biden said in a statement.

“I want to thank the union workers, the carriers, and the port operators for acting patriotically to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helene recovery and rebuilding. Collective bargaining works and it is critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”

The Maritime Alliance increased its initial offer, a 50 percent raise, after pressure from the Biden Administration, which was looking to quell major disruptions in the supply chain and avert any sort of crisis before voters head to the polls on November 5. Experts had projected that a prolonged strike of this size, the first in 50 years, could have reignited inflation on various goods and triggered layoffs at various manufacturers.

While the nation’s longshoremen are going back to work, the strike-ending solution is only temporary. The new agreement does not resolve the ILA’s demands to curb the use of automated machinery. Both sides will continue to negotiate until January 15.

The ILA staged their walkout at ports stretching from Maine to Texas just after midnight on Tuesday, demanding a sizable increase in wages and a total ban at ports of automated cranes, gates, and container-moving trucks. The union has claimed that during negotiations, the USMX’s original offer “fell far short of what ILA rank-and-file members are demanding in wages and protections against automation.”

Under their last contract, dockworkers along the East and Gulf Coasts were paid $39 an hour. The union sought a 77 percent raise, doled out at $5 an hour each year of a new six-year contract.