Dive Brief:

• A labor dispute that has festered at West Coast ports that account for 40% of the cargo coming into the United States is now having a “significant and damaging impact” on port operations, the National Retail Federation warned last week.

• The ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach, CA are major points of entry for retail merchandise from Asia, and September is usually peak time for shipments.

• Retailers have been making some contingency shipping plans since the summer, when the talks between the International Longshore & Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association missed their deadline for agreement, although workers have also continued working without a contract. 

Dive Insight:

Although there is still no agreement between dock workers and their employers on the major West Coast ports, the labor union involved has said anxiety is misplaced. For one thing, shipments are still coming in. But perhaps more importantly, both sides are characterizing the talks as friendlier and more fruitful than in past years. 

“No one is expecting that a strike or lockout of West Coast seaports will keep Santa from making his appointed rounds this year,” Jock O’Connell, international trade adviser with consulting firm Beacon Economics, told Bloomberg.