According to today's USDA Grain Transportation Report, since last Friday (June 2), container terminals at several key West Coast Ports have experienced intermittent closures and other delays due to insufficient labor.
According to the Journal of Commerce, the port disruptions at the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Tacoma, and Seattle stemmed from a breakdown in labor contract negotiations between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the International Longshore Warehouse Union (ILWU).
The breakdown reportedly involved a dispute in wage increases for longshoreman, and the port disruptions marked the latest such incidents since April. (The previous labor contract expired last July.)
PMA represents West Coast ocean carriers, terminal operators, and stevedores. ILWU represents West Coast dockworkers.
After a 4-day hiatus, labor negotiations briefly resumed on Tuesday (June 6), but halted to honor the death of a longshore worker, and were expected to resume on Wednesday.
West Coast ports are key agricultural export terminals.
For June, between 2018 and 2022, West Coast ports handled around 41% of total U.S. containerized agricultural exports.
Distillers’ dried grains and soybeans are the top containerized grain products.