As dockers near the end of their contracts, many others are getting their share

LOS ANGELES — David Alvarado dashed south along the highway, staring through the windshield of his semi-truck at the towering cranes that line the shoreline.

He’d made the same 30-minute trip to the Port of Los Angeles twice that day; if it went well, he would make it twice more. mr. Alvarado has learned that it takes an average of four pick-ups and deliveries a day to provide a comfortable life for his wife and three children.

“This is my life — it’s helped me support a family,” said Mr. Alvarado, who has been moving freight for 17 years between warehouses in Southern California and the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, a global hub that handles 40 percent. . of the country’s overseas imports.

He endured the blow to his salary early in the pandemic as he idled six hours a day, waiting for cargo to be loaded from ships and onto his truck. Now the ports are bustling again, but there is a new source of unrest: the imminent expiry of the union contract for dock workers along the west coast.

If negotiations fail to avoid a delay, strike or lockout, he said, “it will crush me financially.”

The outcome will be crucial not only for the union dockers and port operators, but also for the ecosystem of workers around the ports like Mr Alvarado, and for a global supply chain torn by the coronavirus lockdowns and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The rise in inflation to its highest level in more than four decades is due in part to supply chain complications.

The contract between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents 22,000 workers in 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle, and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the shipping terminals, expires Friday. The union members mainly operate machinery such as cranes and forklifts that move freight containers to and from ships.

In a statement this month, representatives of the two sides said they did not expect a deal before the deadline, but were determined to work towards an agreement.

Negotiations have largely focused on whether or not to raise wages for the union workers, whose average salary is in the low six figures, and to expand automation, such as the use of robots to move freight containers, to speed up production. speed up, a priority for shipping companies.

“Automation is enabling greater densification of existing port terminals, enabling greater cargo throughput and continued cargo growth over time,” said Jim McKenna, the chief executive of the Pacific Maritime Association, in a recent video statement on the negotiations.

In an open letter posted to Facebook last month, union chairman Willie Adams attacked the move toward automation, saying it would lead to job losses and prioritize foreign profits over “what’s best for America.”

“Automation,” wrote Mr. Adams, “poses a major national security risk because our gates are at risk of being hacked, as other automated gates have experienced.”

As the negotiations, which began in early May, continue, record levels of cargo have arrived here.

In May, the Port of Los Angeles had its third busiest month on record, with nearly a million shipping container units largely filled with imports from Asia. Twenty-one ships waited this week to dock outside local ports, up from 109 in January, according to the Southern California Marine Exchange.

On a recent trip here, President Biden — who last year approved a plan to keep the Port of Los Angeles open 24 hours a day — met with negotiators to push for a quick deal. Leaders on both sides say Mr Biden has been working on the case behind the scenes, hoping to avoid delays.

When a breakdown in talks in 2002 resulted in an 11-day lockout, the US economy lost an estimated $11 billion. President George W. Bush eventually intervened and the ban was lifted. In 2015, when negotiations lasted nine months, the Obama administration intervened after the standoff led to a slowdown in operations and congestion in ports on the west coast.

Mr. Biden’s early intervention could help eliminate serious backlogs, said Geraldine Knatz, a professor of policy and engineering practice at the University of Southern California.

“In the past, when negotiations were at an impasse, the federal government would step in at the end,” said Ms. Knatz, who served as executive director of the Port of Los Angeles from 2006 to 2014. “The relationship that has developed between the ports and the Biden administration as a result of the supply chain crisis is something that did not exist before.”

Still, contingency plans are in place, said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation. Some retailers began moving their schedules months ago, ordering supplies long before they needed them, he said, and using ports along the East and Gulf Coasts whenever possible.

In an interview, Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said he did not believe the approaching contract deadline would lead to delays: All parties involved, he said, know it is already an exceptionally busy time for the region.

Retail imports account for 75 percent of all cargo entering ports, and with shopping season approaching and the holiday season approaching, Mr. Seroka said he didn’t expect freight volumes to shrink to more typical levels until next year.

“Everyone is working as hard as they can,” said Mr. Seroka.

But for some retailers, the current uncertainty brings back painful memories.

In early 2015, amid delays in contract negotiations, Charlie Woo fired more than 600 seasonal workers from his company Megatoys.

“It was tough then,” Mr. Woo said one morning recently from his 330,000-square-foot warehouse in Commerce, California, an industrial city in Los Angeles County, not far from the ports.

Mr. Woo started Megatoys in 1989 and now imports about 1,000 freight containers from China every year. The 40-foot containers are filled with small toys such as plastic Easter eggs and miniature rubber footballs and basketballs, which his employees pack in baskets sold at supermarkets and larger outlets such as Walmart and Target.

During last fall’s pandemic disruptions, some of his shipments were delayed by nearly three months — delays that ultimately translated into a 5 percent drop in sales for his company, which Mr. Woo said brings in tens of millions of dollars annually.

He is bracing himself for another difficult year.

“I expect problems; I just don’t know how big the problem will be,” said Mr. Woo, who also owns a factory near Shenzhen, China, said he hoped more US terminals would move toward greater automation.

“We need to find innovative solutions to catch up with ports in Asia,” said Mr Woo.

One recent afternoon, Mr. Alvarado, the truck driver, reminisced about the early days of the career in which he was born.

During summer vacations as a little boy, he drove shotguns with his father, who has been driving a semi-truck in the ports for nearly four decades, and they listened to Dodger baseball games together.

“This is all I ever wanted to be,” said Mr. Alvarado, 38. Over the years, he’s seen many childhood friends move away because they couldn’t afford to live here.

It hasn’t always been easy for him either. Last fall, with more than 80 cargo ships anchored here off the coast, in part because of the ongoing pandemic and a surge in imports ahead of the holiday season, he sometimes waited hours before finally getting a load, said Mr Alvarado, who belongs to the approximately 21,000 truck drivers authorized to pick up cargo at ports.

For an independent contractor, time is money: Mr. Alvarado works 16 hours some weekdays and aims to pick up and drop off four loads each day. If he does that consistently, he said, he can make up to $4,000 a week, before expenses.

During the worst delays of the pandemic, he was lucky enough to get two loads a day, and while things have improved in recent months, he is now concerned about fuel prices.

“Inflation has been massive,” he said.

Fueling 220 gallons for the week now typically costs $1,200, double what it was several months ago, Mr. Alvarado said.

“It’s all starting to add up,” he said. “You wonder if you should think about anything else.”

As for the outlook in the labor talks, Mr Alvarado said he was trying to remain optimistic. The union workers, he said, remind him of his own family: working-class men and women, many of them Latino with deep family ties to the ports. A work stoppage would also be painful for many of them.

“It will hurt all Americans,” he said.

As he drove past the docks, Mr. Alvarado turned his truck into a warehouse parking lot, where the multicolored containers lined the tarmac like a row of neatly arranged Lego blocks.

It was his third load of the day and for this round he didn’t have to wait for the dockers to load the carrier onto his truck. Instead, he propped up his semi into a chassis, and the blue container clicked into place.

He pulled out Google Maps on his iPhone and looked at the distance to the drop-off in Fontana, California: 107 miles, an hour and a half.

It could end up being a day of four loads, said Mr. Alvarado.