End of the port strike in LA and Long Beach California

Late Tuesday night, negotiators were able to reach a deal between the Office Clerical Unit (OCU) of the ILWU and Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbor Employers Association that has ended the strike that crippled the nation's largest port complex.

"I'm really pleased to tell all of you that my 10,000 longshore workers in the ports of LA and Long Beach are going to start moving cargo on these ships," said Ray Familathe, vice president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. "We're going to get cargo moved throughout the supply chain and the country."

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was the one to announce the end of the strike saying, "We've got a deal and people are going back to work." Although the deal has not been ratified by workers, union leaders are confident of its approval. The clerks of the OCU handle filing invoices and billing notices, arranging dock visits by customs inspectors, and managing cargo moves off the dock quickly. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handle 44% of all cargo that arrives in the U.S. by sea.

The strike cost roughly $1 billion a day in merchandise and there is currently a bottleneck of goods waiting to be offloaded from the ships in addition to the cargo that was stacked up on the docks and in adjacent rail yards. "We're delighted that the terminals will be operating again, that the cargo will be flowing," said Stephen Berry, the chief negotiator for the LA and Long Beach Harbor Employers Association.

As operations resume, we will continuing to monitor the situation and provide the latest information as we receive it. Please contact your move manager if you have any questions.