NEWARK, N.J. — Evergreen America Corp. and the International Longshoremen's Association said Tuesday they had reached a collective bargaining agreement covering four port captains and a port engineer at the company's Morristown, N.J. office.

The company and the union had been bargaining since June 11, when the port captains ended a 28-day strike that erupted after Evergreen refused to recognize the ILA as the workers' bargaining agent. The strike disrupted Evergreen operations at East Coast ports where ILA longshoremen refused to cross the port captains' picket lines.

The strike ended when the company agreed to negotiate a contract with the union and submit unsettled issues to arbitration if no agreement could be reached. The company and union agreed that the contract would be subject to a court ruling on Evergreen's claim that the five workers are managers who are ineligible for union membership. Evergreen's case is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The ILA and the union said the contract for the port captains and port engineers extends for nearly four years, from the time the group voted to join the union until Nov. 15, 2006. The two sides declined to release other details.

In a separate case, the ILA has asked the National Labor Relations Board to overturn a 61-52 vote by Evergreen America's New Jersey office employees against ILA representation. The union claims the referendum was tainted by company coercion.

The ILA has said it plans to try to organize port captains at other carriers' East Coast operations.

By Joseph Bonney