Global Courant
Southern California dockers disrupted cargo activity Friday at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — key entry points for the country’s imports — after contract talks deteriorated in recent days.
The Pacific Maritime Assn., representing shipping companies and port terminal operators, said the International Longshore and Warehouse Union is organizing “coordinated and disruptive work actions that have effectively shut down operations” at several terminals in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Tacoma and Seattle .
The union held work stop meetings on Thursday evenings, and on Friday, members failed to show up for work or organized individual work delays. The combination caused a lot of traffic in the ports, forcing some terminals to close.
Spokesmen for the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach said late Friday that the ports continued to operate despite labor shortages.
The latest work move by the powerful union is the boldest yet to sway contract negotiations that began more than a year ago. More than 22,000 longshoremen and 29 West Coast ports have been out of contract since July 1.
ILWU Local 13 said about 12,000 members in Southern California “have taken it upon themselves to voice their displeasure with the position of the ocean carriers and terminal operators.”
In April, local longshoremen enforced a roughly 24-hour closure at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, raising fears that the failure of high-stakes labor negotiations could lead to a crippling standoff like the one in 2012.
