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The record at the time was 157 total ships, and that was set just last month.Ībout 20 containers wait to be unloaded in Southern California. Ships idling and anchored offshore can be seen for miles as they sit waiting for their turn to dock and have their cargo unloaded.Īccording to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, as of October 5, there were a total of 143 ships in port: 88 at anchor or drift areas and 55 at berths. Since the pandemic, congestion at ports like mine is at an all-time high. I'm what is referred to as an Identified Casual, meaning I get the work left over from the Regulars, who are the permanent full-time workers in the Union. It can be a physically demanding job most of the time, and by the end of the shift, it's pretty normal to feel like you did the most intense workout of your life - even with an hour lunch break and two 30-minute breaks.
#Sitting on the dock of the bay year manual
Longshoreman - or dock workers, as we are often referred to - work in commercial ports and harbors, unloading and loading cargo to and from vessels through either manual labor and by operating heavy machinery. Story continues We're like the Costco of portsĪs a major gateway for trans-Pacific trade, everything you can imagine comes through here. It's a total blame game.īut the blame game has to start somewhere, and this time, it started with backlogs at the port.
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Truckers complain about the lack of chassis at the port, which limits the number of containers that can be carried out of the yard. Consumers see the ships backed up and say we're not unloading fast enough. Then we turn around and blame COVID-19 for the influx of online orders. The shipping companies blame us for not covering skilled-labor jobs, but they're the ones that approve training for those types of jobs. I've been working as a longshoreman at California's San Pedro Bay Port Complex for close to 15 years, and the only thing I know for sure about the congestion here is that everyone is blaming someone else. This is their story, as told to freelance writer Jenny Powers. They chose to remain anonymous due to their job, but their identity has been verified by Insider. This is their story, as told to freelance writer Jenny Powers.Ī California longshoreman told Insider what it's been like to work the California ports during record backlog. The ports handle nearly half of inbound containers for the US, making the backlog a huge issue.Ī California longshoreman told Insider what it's been like to work the ports. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are experiencing record backlog as cargo ships wait to dock. Container ships at the congested Port of Los Angeles in September 2021.