The Maritime Union and Port Lyttelton have finally agreed to terms after six months of negotiation.

Around 160 Lyttelton Port employees are part of the Maritime Union. Their collective contract was set to expire in March last year, however negotiations stalled, with 30 meetings in the second half of 2016 until workers voted unanimously to strike over a dispute about control of rosters and working hours.

Union National Secretary Joe Fleetwood said three days of negotiations last week has seen the parties agree to terms, that now need to be ratified.

"We're quite happy with how we've ended up and the bargaining team is happy and confident and taken it to ratification," he said.

"No one ever gets everything they want, but it would be fair to say that we got a good percentage of what we wanted and needed."

In 2012, a similar dispute between the Union and Ports of Auckland led to a series of strikes, with the operator losing a number of contracts.

That dispute was finally ended in February last year.