US dock workers and port operators have reached a tentative deal that will immediately end a three-day strike.

Nearly 50,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) are on strike Tuesday against the nation’s East and Gulf Coast ports, choking off the flow of many of America’s imports and exports in what could become the country’s most disruptive work stoppage in decades.

Some 45,000 union workers walked off the job at seaports on the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts on Oct. 1, cutting off vital trade arteries just weeks ahead of the nation's presidential election.