It would have been terrible timing: The union representing the striking U.S. dockworkers, the International Longshoremen’s Association, reached a deal Thursday to suspend the strike until Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract. Workers had begun walking picket lines early Tuesday near ports all along the East and Gulf coasts. A shutdown lasting more than a few weeks could have led to higher prices and shortages of goods throughout the country as the holiday shopping season — along with a tight presidential election — approaches. With the strike being suspended, consumers probably won’t notice any significant shortages or price hikes. Had the stoppage persisted for more than a month, it would have been a different story, depending on what you were shopping for. Most holiday retail goods have already arrived from overseas, so there is a buffer. Prices on everything from fruits and vegetables to cars could have headed higher, at least temporarily, if it had dragged on. I honestly thought that was the intention in doing this in October. The head of that Union is a super Trump supporter and it looked like he was pulling a fast one by calling for the strike just before the election. Here’s how it went down: At 5:30 a.m. Thursday, before the sun had risen above his Washington home, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients was on a Zoom call with two Cabinet secretaries and the executives of the shipping companies negotiating with workers who had gone on strike at critical…