The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are located 26 miles south of the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market and sit side-by-side, forming the San Pedro Bay Port Complex.
Though they compete for business, operate and market separately, they cooperate on issues of security, infrastructure, and the environment. The complex is the sixth busiest port in the world and handles 37 percent of the nation’s imports.
The labor dispute at all ports along the West Coast that caused such damage to the local economy in 2014-15 has long been resolved and things are robustly back to normal.
The slowdown that left containers of produce rotting and merchandise stuck on ships right before the holiday season was due to the inability of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association to agree to the terms of a new contract.
In February of 2015 they came to an agreement that would last through 2019, but it was months after the previous agreement had expired. Although agreements are usually for a five-year period, the Pacific Maritime Association proposed extending the current agreement from 2015 through 2022.
The 20,000 union dockworkers voted to accept the mutually beneficial contract. This lifted a weight off the shoulders of the importers and shippers who depend on the ports to compete in the global marketplace.
This is an excerpt from the most recent Produce Blueprints quarterly journal. Click here to read the full article.
