Los Angeles and Long Beach, California: Port Employers and Watchmen Union Extend Talks to November 5, Averting a Strike Deadline

Employers at the Los Angeles and Long Beach seaports and the union for maritime watchmen agreed on Friday to extend their contract talks through November 5, averting a November 1 deadline that could have led to a strike at the busiest container port complex in the United States, Reuters reported.

The Pacific Maritime Association said on Friday that it and ILWU Local 26, which represents about 250 maritime watchmen at the two ports, will keep negotiating with the help of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Reuters reported. An ILWU representative did not immediately comment, Reuters said.

A small crew with a large gate

The watchmen are a small share of the port workforce, about 2 percent of port workers in the Reuters account, but their posts sit at the center of terminal operations. Watchmen control and inspect truck and employee entries at terminal gates, provide terminal security, and guard and track critical cargo moving across the docks, Reuters reported.

Their terminals handle a large share of the cargo that moves through the complex. Watchmen work at terminals that handle roughly 85 percent of the cargo handled by the Port of Long Beach and 33 percent of the cargo at the Port of Los Angeles, according to the Reuters report. A walkout by the watchmen could snarl cargo flows even though longshore crews kept working, because trucks and employees pass through the gates the watchmen staff.

Record cargo, a short extension

The two ports are handling record volume. Los Angeles and Long Beach each reported all time cargo volume records for the month of September, Reuters reported, so a gate disruption in the first week of November would land in one of the busiest stretches the complex has recorded.

The extension moves the deadline by four days, from November 1 to November 5, and it is an extension of talks, not a settlement. Reuters did not report the terms under dispute, and neither side described an agreement on the contract itself. What the Friday announcement settles is the calendar: cargo keeps moving at both ports while the two sides negotiate with federal mediators at the table, and the next deadline is November 5.

For drivers, warehouse operators and shippers who plan around the San Pedro Bay gates, that is four more days of normal gate operations, and four days for the two sides to close the remaining gap before the strike question returns.