Shippers Cancel Overnight Loaders at Ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles
Negotiators for West Coast terminals and shipping lines said they will stop assigning overnight crews to unload and load cargo ships at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Reuters reported.
The Pacific Maritime Association, the negotiator for shippers, told the news service the move would refocus efforts during the night hours on removing the empty containers that have piled up on the terminal yards.
PMA recently said the region’s five largest ports are “approaching complete gridlock” and accused the International Longshore and Warehouse Union of staging slowdowns for leverage during contract negotiations.
Officials from the union denied organizing slowdowns and said the increased congestion is due to decisions from management.
Backups at the five largest ports have reached levels that are “no longer sustainable,” PMA said in a Jan. 13 statement. While stopping short of a threat, the statement suggests the long-running labor dispute may be moving closer to a work stoppage like the one that shut down 29 West Coast ports for 10 days in 2002, Bloomberg News reported.
“The PMA has a sense of urgency to resolve these contract talks and get our ports moving again,” association spokesman Steve Getzug said in the statement. “Unfortunately, it appears the union’s motivation is to continue slowdowns in an attempt to gain leverage in the bargaining.”
The shippers’ association has been in negotiations with ILWU since May. A federal mediator agreed Jan. 6 to intervene in the talks.
