Terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach remained effectively closed Friday after an absence of dockworkers at both key U.S. import hubs, raising concerns of renewed tangles in the nation’s distribution network that could lead to shipping delays and bigger disruptions to the economy.
Dockworkers stopped showing up Thursday night following months of contract negotiations between the union representing the longshoreman and the terminals’ operators. The Pacific Maritime Association, the group representing terminal operators at the ports, on Friday accused those workers of taking a “concerted action to withhold labor” at those ports.
The union representing those workers, the International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 13, declined to comment. A representative for the union as a whole declined to share information about the state of the negotiations.
The shutdown risks tangling up the flow of goods to store shelves nationwide, potentially pushing prices higher as retailers raise prices to offset higher shipping costs and protect profits.
However, the closures also come as more businesses press for automation at the ports, threatening shipyard jobs in the years ahead. More workers have unionized over the past year, and have felt more emboldened to ask for better pay and protections after decades-high inflation.
Months of backups at the ports recently ended, after COVID-related factory shutdowns in Asia clashed with an online shopping boom in the U.S. Dozens of container ships backed up on the water outside ports on the nation’s coasts through 2021 and much of last year, sending shock waves up and down the supply chain and driving up shipping costs.
The PMA said that most of the jobs for Thursday night’s shift went unfilled, including those needed to load and unload cargo. Those who did show up, the group said, were released. And it said the ILWU Local 13 “withheld labor again for this morning’s shift.”
The PMA said those events occurred while negotiations for a contract continue. Those talks have been ongoing since May.
The Port of Los Angeles, in a statement, said it had been in contact with the union and the terminal operators’ representatives, as well as state and local officials, in an effort to usher a return to regular operations.
“Resuming cargo operations at America’s busiest port complex is critical to maintaining the confidence of our customers and supply chain stakeholders,” a representative for the port said in a statement.
Kip Louttit, executive director at the Marine Exchange of Southern California, which monitors traffic at the two West Coast ports, said there had been one container ship backup so far over the past two days. He said that vessel “slipped from going to berth today to tomorrow, and we don’t know if that’s hopeful, realistic, or will slip again.”
“We’re watching it,” he said.
The National Retail Federation, an industry group, said in a statement that the ports were an important link for stores to get products on shelves.
“It is essential that the ongoing labor negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association are resolved immediately,” the group said in a statement. “We again call on the administration to engage and prevent any further disruption to port operations and cargo fluidity.”