SAN DIEGO - A new labor agreement between West Coast dockworkers and shipping companies is expected to help speed the flow of goods to the nation's stores and manufacturers, just in time for the holiday shopping season.

Representatives of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies, signed the six-year agreement early yesterday after weeks of negotiations that were ordered by President Bush and led by federal mediators.

The 10,500 union members affected by the agreement must ratify it in a vote that will probably take place after Thanksgiving. If they approve - and they're expected to do so - it will bring a calm to the 29 ports stretching from San Diego to Seattle, Wash., that hasn't been present for months.

"What this brings is stability," said union spokesman Steve Stallone.

West Coast ports handle the vast majority of goods that flow to and from Asia, including toys and computer equipment imported from China, and beef and construction equipment exported from Texas and Georgia to other parts of the Far East.

The new labor contract outlines the implementation of new technology at the ports - including optical scanners that can track inventory and new computers for clerks - and new pension, wage and health benefit levels for workers.

The technology issue was the biggest sticking point. The new equipment is essential for the West Coast ports to stay competitive against others in the Pacific, both sides agreed, but the union worried that it would eliminate as many as 400 jobs.

Union officials declined to release details of the contract yesterday, pending membership approval. But Stallone said the estimated $200 million in annual savings shippers expect from the new technology will be partly passed along to union members in the form of higher pensions and wages. And while jobs will be lost, he indicated that they would be eliminated mainly through attrition or reassignments.

"Nobody's going to be going to the unemployment lines," he said.

10-day shutdown

The labor strife led to a 10-day shutdown of the ports that cost the nation's economy from $1 billion to $2 billion a day and resulted in a backlog of goods that closed factories and prompted worry among retailers waiting for inventory and farmers trying to ship their perishables overseas.

In a statement early yesterday, Bush praised the new contract.

"This agreement is good for workers, good for employers and it's good for the American economy," he said.

The tentative contract comes a month before the expiration of an 80-day federal injunction that required the workers and shipping companies to keep the ports open without interruption.

Bush, citing damage to the economy, got the injunction and reopened the ports Oct. 9 under an emergency provision of the Taft-Hartley labor act that hadn't been used in more than 20 years.

But even after the ports reopened, work on the docks has been tenuous and tense. Many had feared the union, which had been vehemently against Bush's intervention, would vote to strike at the end of the injunction late next month if members didn't have a contract in hand.

The union's contract with shippers expired in July.

Accusations traded

Less than two weeks ago, the union and shipping representatives were in court, trading accusations over who was to blame for slow progress in clearing a backlog of goods on the docks and sitting on idle ships at sea.

Yesterday, Stallone said most of the backlog had been cleared, although there were problems with too many containers on the docks.

With an agreement finally in hand, union members and shipping representatives can quit trading barbs and trying to affect negotiations and go back to work without worries of a strike or further federal intervention.

"Our people wanted a contract settled, but they wanted a good contract," Stallone said. "We weren't going to settle for just anything ... and we didn't."