LA Ports Prepare to Manage Ship Traffic as Labor Disrupts Cargo

Most container ships through the biggest import gateway in the US face delays as labor-related disruptions widen on the West Coast and threaten another cargo logjam.

“Basically every container vessel is having their schedule pushed back by about a day or two,” Richard Palmer of the Marine Exchange of Southern California said in an emailed operations update. He said the main reason he’s seen is a lack of “lashers,” or longshoremen who secure containers aboard ships.

Palmer said agents for 10 of the vessels attributed the delays to a shortage of workers, and that some agencies didn’t want to comment ...