Southern California’s holiday retail season could be hit due to an ongoing labor dispute affecting the Port of Long Beach.
Some businesses have said they could have a difficult time filling orders in time for Christmas due to the ongoing dispute between workers and operators the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), with the International Longshoreman Workers Union (ILWU) instituting a slowdown at the port, which is the busiest in the nation.
Labor bosses have blamed the PMA, claiming they have not been treating truckers fairly or paying them enough, which caused them to take the action which is affecting ports across the West Coast.
Art of Caramel, a Pasadena based gourmet corn company, is one of the companies that is being affected, with product packaging being shipped from China currently in limbo.
"We're very worried right now. We have glass containers that we use to package our product that are currently coming into port, in fact this week they're rolling into the port of Los Angeles and they're kind of facing an unknown fate at this point," company CEO Rob Feldman said.
The ILWU has been accused of failing to dispatch hundreds of crane operators used to unload cargo ships.
However the union’s communications director Craig Merrillees defended the action.
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"Most of the congestion caused by bad decisions made by employers there aren’t enough truckers because the employers haven’t been paying and treating the truckers fairly," Merrillees said.
The PMA declined to comment, except to say it is hoping for a resolution to the dispute soon.
