Southern California ports shut Friday due to worker shortage, snarling cargo traffic

Did the covid vaccine take out that many?

A dockworker shortage at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports stretched into its second day on Friday, halting cargo traffic at the massive shipping complex while disrupting the local economy and the global supply chain.

The shortage comes several months into protracted labor negotiations between the union that represents West Coast dockworkers and the industry group representing maritime shippers, which are hashing out a new contract focused, in part, on wages and the role of automation. The old contract expired July 1.

The Pacific Maritime Assn., the industry group representing shippers at the negotiating table, said in a statement Friday that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union had taken a “concerted action to withhold labor.”

“A majority of the jobs for last night’s shift went unfilled, including all jobs for cargo-handling equipment operators needed to load and unload cargo,” the statement read. “The workers who did show up were released because there was not a full complement of ILWU members to operate the terminals.”

ILWU officials didn’t immediately respond to calls for comment.

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