250 Port Watchmen Could Stall Half the L.A.-Long Beach Complex With a Sunday Strike
Employers say a Nov. 1 walkout by security workers could halt terminals that handle 85% of Long Beach cargo and a third of L.A.'s, just after record months.
About 250 security workers could decide what happens next at the busiest container port complex in the United States. Port employers warned Tuesday that a strike by watchmen at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which could start as soon as Sunday, could stop work at terminals that handle more than half the cargo coming through San Pedro Bay.
A Small Union With a Wide Reach
The watchmen belong to Local 26 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. They handle security at marine terminals, including watching gates and cargo. Their labor agreement expired in July 2025, and its latest extension runs out on Sunday, Nov. 1. The union has authorized a strike starting at 5 p.m. Pacific time that day if talks fail, PortNews reported, citing the Pacific Maritime Association, the group that bargains for West Coast terminal operators and shipping lines.
The watchmen make up only about 2% of the ILWU workforce at the two ports. But the employers say the terminals where they work handle about 85% of Long Beach's cargo and 33% of Los Angeles' cargo, gCaptain reported. The bigger risk is that other dockworkers are not expected to cross a Local 26 picket line. If they don't, ship, yard and truck-gate work at those terminals could stop.
In an Oct. 23 letter to other maritime unions, Local 26 President Luisa Gratz named eight terminal locations that could be affected: APM Terminals, Long Beach Container Terminal, Total Terminals International, SSA Marine's C-60, A-90 and LB 206 sites, Pacific Container Terminal and OH 55. The employers counted six of the complex's 13 container terminals as employing Local 26 watchmen.
Both Sides Say They Are Still Talking
The two sides have been negotiating for more than a year, and federal mediators from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service are now involved. Gratz said the process has not produced results. "Although PMA has recently requested Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service's participation, and Local 26 agreed, nothing of value has resulted from the Union's commitment to bargaining in good faith with our employers and PMA," she wrote, according to gCaptain.
The employers said "significant differences" remain but that they will keep bargaining. "The Pacific Maritime Association remains committed to reaching a fair agreement with ILWU Local 26 at the bargaining table, and we will continue to negotiate in good faith through the November 1 deadline and beyond if necessary," the association said.
The association said its offer includes raises and pension improvements, and that full-time watchmen already earn more than $170,000 a year on average, plus employer-paid health care and pensions. It did not explain how it reached that figure. The union has not publicly laid out its remaining economic demands.
Bad Timing for a Record Year
The threat lands as the ports are busier than ever. In September, the Port of Los Angeles handled 1,042,652 twenty-foot equivalent units, a standard measure of container volume, its busiest month in 118 years. Long Beach handled a record 997,177, for a combined 2.04 million, according to PortNews. July through September was the Port of Los Angeles' busiest quarter on record, The Maritime Executive reported.
Port officials have linked the surge to lower tariffs and to disruption at the Panama Canal. "Tariffs are lower than the levels we saw earlier this year and last, giving importers more certainty on cost and allowing them to replenish inventories at a quicker rate," Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka told the Los Angeles Times, as quoted by The Maritime Executive.
The holiday rush is starting to ease. The National Retail Federation expects volumes at major U.S. container ports to drop from 2.25 million units in October to 2 million in November, gCaptain reported. Even so, a shutdown at half the complex would hit the trucking, warehouse and logistics businesses across Southern California that depend on steady cargo flow.
What It Means for the Waterfront
The Local 26 contract is separate from the coastwide agreement that covers about 22,000 longshore workers and marine clerks at 29 West Coast ports. That six-year deal was reached in 2023 after tense talks that led to slowdowns and terminal closures in Los Angeles and Long Beach, and it runs through July 2028.
Other unions are watching. The International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots, which represents licensed deck officers on U.S.-flag ships, said it would give further guidance to members working at affected berths as the deadline nears, according to gCaptain.
"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 employers' association said. No strike has been confirmed, and talks are expected to continue through the weekend.
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