ILWU Local 26 Strike Vote Threatens Gates at LA-Long Beach Terminals

Roughly 250 watchmen at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have voted to authorize a strike that could halt vessel, yard and gate operations at terminals handling more than half of the cargo moving through the San Pedro Bay complex, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) said Tuesday.

A walkout could begin at 5 p.m. Pacific time if the two sides don't reach a new agreement before the contract extension expires. For apparel and soft-goods importers routing through Southern California, that's the decision point: which of your terminals could go dark, and what's your diversion plan.

Which terminals are exposed?

ILWU Local 26, the maritime security unit covering gate security and cargo watch duties, accounts for only 2 percent of the union's total workforce at the two ports. But the terminals where its members work handle roughly 85 percent of Long Beach's cargo and 33 percent of freight at the Port of Los Angeles, the PMA said.

Eight terminals would be impacted:

• Container: APM Terminals (Pier 400), Long Beach Container Terminal, Total Terminals International, SSA Marine's Berth C60 and Berth A90, and Pacific Container Terminal
• Non-container: SSA Marine-operated LB 206 and Outer Harbor Berth 55

What's behind the dispute?

The watchmen work under a separate agreement from the coastwide six-year longshore contract brokered between the ILWU and PMA in summer 2023. Local 26's contract expired in July 2025, and members have worked under an extension while the sides have met for more than a year with federal mediators involved, according to the PMA.

In an Oct. 23 letter to other maritime unions, Local 26 president Luisa Gratz said negotiations had stalled since last year despite the mediation request, writing that "nothing of value has resulted from the union's commitment to bargaining in good faith with our employers and PMA."

The PMA, whose 72 member shipping lines, stevedore companies and terminal operators span California, Oregon and Washington, countered that "none of the employers' proposals have been resolved, and significant differences remain." It said every tentative agreement so far has been based on a union proposal and described a "strong" economic offer with "meaningful" wage increases and pension improvements. Full-time watchmen average more than $170,000 a year plus fully employer-paid health care and pension, the association said, without providing a breakdown.

"A timely agreement matters not only to the parties at the table, but to the entire Southern California supply chain and to the local, state and national economies that depend on it," the PMA statement said.

Why the timing compounds the risk

The strike threat lands while the complex is already struggling to move rail-bound cargo inland. A compilation of both ports' daily rail reports from The Dwell counted 34,592 import containers awaiting on-dock rail service on Tuesday — 18,709 at Los Angeles, where 46.9 percent had waited nine days or longer, and 15,883 at Long Beach, with 21.7 percent at nine days or more.

Port of Los Angeles executive director Gene Seroka told a media briefing earlier this month that rail dwell times are "something that we're watching really closely." Pacific Merchant Shipping Association data shows rail dwell rising every month since March, hitting 7.19 days on average in September, up from 6.75 in August; truck-out dwell rose to 3.18 days from 2.95.

C.H. Robinson's October market update flagged Southern California intermodal railcar shortages as a constraint extending import dwell and slowing inland movement.

Both ports posted record September volumes — Los Angeles at about 1.04 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) and Long Beach at 997,177, a combined 2.04 million — leaving little slack for a stoppage at facilities handling more than half of the complex's cargo. Offshore congestion isn't the issue: The Dwell's tracker, using U.S. Maritime Administration and Marine Exchange of Southern California data, reported just one ship awaiting a berth the week of Oct. 26. The constraint is inland, and a gate closure at those eight terminals would compound it.

Importers with cargo routed through the named terminals need contingency routing now — Gulf or East Coast alternatives, or truck transload — before the extension lapses.