In just the few years that I have been hauling Port Containers I have seen & heard of much silliness from both labor and the Steamship Companies. When the Longshore contract with Pacific Maritine Association was coming due a year or so ago, Longshore started their slowdown, which they claimed was for safety reasons due to SSCo's wanting increased production during the Holidays. Much of the slowdown was due to senior Longshore workers ( the " A - Card " workers ) taking all their vacation and holiday days off, thereby leaving the Port terminals in the less capable hands of the B - Card & C - Card workers. Totally legal per their contract, yet effective too. There was also an " incident " at Evergreen SSCo's facility at Pierce Co. Terminal, which resulted in Evergreen trying to fire several Longshore, which resulted in all Tacoma Longshore walking off the job at noon on a regular business day. All port facilities closed for the rest of the day.
The ILWU is still a very powerful union, and greedy too. They have been able to eliminate competition from other unions (Teamsters, IBEW, & IAM Machinists ) by claiming that ALL Work performed " on - dock " (i.e. -- within a Port terminal facility ) MUST therefore be considered Longshore work. They even shut down Port of Portland a few years ago, fussing over 2 jobs plugging in reefers to shore power, work that was being done by IBEW Electricians.
The Steamship Lines are not innocent in all this silliness, either. They negotiate, agree to & sign the new contracts with ILWU, then cut daily Port Terminal staffing to the bare minimum while complaining about the high cost of labor. The lines of trucks waiting to access the ports keeps getting longer; most of the dray haulers are not paid for the wait time which forces some out of business. Then the SSCo's & importers complain they can't find a trucker for your load. They only allow 3 free days ( including weeekends & other days that the gates are NOT open for trucker access ) for a dray hauler to pickup a can ( loaded or empty ), haul it to their customer, then return it to the Port. At Port of LA - Long Beach, your import load is scheduled for a pickup time & day, which may or may not work for you as a customer or trucker. Miss your appointment time for any reason including traffic delays & waiting in line for the ingate; too bad you have to re - appointment it now. BTW, many of the contract Port Terminal Operators are owned by the SSCo's, including Ports America ( Hanjin ), Eagle Marine Services ( APL ), and SSA ( several SSCo's including Maersk ). No conflict of interest there, right ???