LOS ANGELES, LONG BEACH – On Feb. 23, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia thanked the International Longshore Workers Union and the Pacific Maritime Association for heeding their call to resolve the labor dispute.
The mayors also announced plans for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to collaborate on a series of initiatives designed to meet the changing dynamics of seaborne trade and the impacts of those changes on cargo flow.
The two ports recently submitted to the Federal Maritime Commission an updated cooperative working agreement that clarifies and expands on their existing pact. The proposed update, now in a public comment period which endsFeb. 25, will enable the ports to work together on strategies that will benefit both ports in the areas of supply chain logistics and gateway marketing, as well as environment, security and legislative advocacy.
The Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach are the largest ports in the nation. The two ports handle about 43 percent of the nation’s total import traffic and 27 percent of its total exports. More than 3 million direct, indirect and induced jobs are related to cargo movement at the port complex. More than $30 billion in national, state and local taxes are generated from port-related trade each year.
In recent months, the harbor commissions of both ports have requested from the commission approval of an updated cooperative working agreement to work together on supply chain issues that include greater collaboration in the development of chassis supply and storage solutions, greater vessel call coordination, reduced truck turn-times, and solutions to help address congestion related to marine terminal operations.
The ports have already been working with the three primary chassis pool providers as they finalize plans to open a “gray chassis pool” or “pool of pools”March 1. The pool will help ensure more efficient positioning of the truck-trailer chassis used to hall containers to and from the port. The ports also plan to host a supply chain stakeholder summit once the labor contract is ratified, in order to look at solutions to the cargo flow challenges specific to San Pedro Bay. Shortly, the ports will also reconvene to discuss a new generation of Clean Air Action Plan strategies following recent years of success in reducing air emissions from port-related goods movement in San Pedro Bay and across the region.