The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will be partially closed this weekend due to an ongoing labor dispute.
It comes after the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents port employers, issued an order to stop the loading and unloading of ships.
The decision affects all 29 U.S. West Coast ports this weekend, and has been blamed on chronic cargo backups, which the shippers and dockworkers union have blamed on each other for during the labor dispute, which started last July. The LA and Long Beach ports are the busiest in the nation.
Employers claimed the behavior of workers had forced the decision.
"After three months of union slowdowns, it makes no sense to pay extra for less work," PMA spokesman Wade Gates said, "Especially if there is no end in sight to the union’s actions which needlessly brought West Coast ports to the brink of gridlock."
However the International Longshore and Warehouse Union denied this, and claimed the decision is an attempt to pressure workers over the negotiations over a new labor contract dragging on for nearly nine months.
"PMA is leaving ships at sea and claiming there's no space on the docks, but there are acres of asphalt just waiting for the containers on those ships, and hundreds of longshore workers ready to unload them," ILWU International President Robert McEllrath said, "The employers are deliberately worsening the existing congestion crisis to gain the upper hand at the bargaining table."
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Terminal yard, rail and gate operations at the ports will go on at the discretion of terminal managers through Saturday and Sunday, the PMA said.
