The union representing West Coast dockworkers announced Friday it will ask its roughly 20,000 members to vote on a proposed three-year contract extension offered by their employer, the Pacific Maritime Association – a move that could provide labor stability at the local ports.

The current contract expires on July 1, 2019, but shippers and retailers have urged the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the PMA to come to an unusually early agreement to avoid a repeat of an eight-month impasse from July 2014 to February 2015, when contentious contract negotiations slowed cargo movement at the local port complex and tarnished its reputation.

“This is a big deal,” said John Husing, chief economist for the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, who believes the ILWU would be unlikely to present a contract to rank and file that would be rejected.

“There’s a good chance that the membership will agree to what was negotiated by their leader,” he said. “The fact they are doing this now is terrific news for those areas of Southern California that heavily depend on goods going through the port to generate employment.”

The early push for an extension comes as the West Coast ports have lost market share in recent years in the face of increased competition from a widened Panama Canal and other East Coast and Gulf ports. Immediately after the stalemate two years ago, shippers and others became wary of relying on the Los Angeles and Long Beach port complex, which handles roughly 40 percent of the nation’s imports.

“If rank and file sign off on it, this would send a signal that labor and management are serious about stability on the docks,” said Paul Bingham, a trade economist at Boston-based EDR Group. “This could help preserve market share on the West Coast by having labor peace.”

An estimated 186,000 jobs in Los Angeles and Long Beach depend on port operations. Beyond the coast, one of every five jobs created over the last seven years were in the port-dependent goods movement industry in the Inland Empire, which houses a concentration of distribution centers, Husing said.

The most recent slowdown ricocheted through the entire Southern California economy, touching all levels of the supply chain from shippers to truckers to warehouses and retailers – some of whom had to wait and watch as food rotted in cargo ship containers that couldn’t be unloaded. By some estimates, the slowdown cost the economy more than $7 billion.

At the time, the union and employers blamed each other for the impasse.

Now, however, the two sides seem to be working together.

“We are glad to hear the ILWU is sending the extension proposal to the rank-and-file for a vote,” said Wade Gates, a PMA spokesman. “Extending our contract would maintain stability on the waterfront for the next five years – a crucial time as the West Coast waterfront faces increased competition from other North American ports, and as the maritime industry continues to battle global economic challenges.”

The ILWU has not yet set a date for the vote.

The contract they will vote on includes:

• A wage increase of 3.1 percent a year across the board, with the base pay rising to about $46 an hour from about $42.

• The maximum retirement benefit would rise to $95,460 from $88,800 a year, with surviving spouses eligible for 75 percent of pensions.

• Medical benefits would be unchanged with no premiums and $1 co-pay for prescription drugs.

“One of the ILWU’s guiding principles is that the rank-and-file members will make the best decision when they have the facts and an opportunity to decide for themselves, and that’s how this will be decided,” said ILWU International President Robert McEllrath in a released statement.

The two parties have been in negotiations since August after PMA President James C. McKenna floated the idea of early negotiations. Early this week, the PMA presented the IWLU with a formal contract proposal. On Friday, union caucus delegates voted to bring the contract to its membership for a vote.