Thursday, November 5, 2026
The news that moves freight
Geopolitics Nov 5, 2026 · 7 min read

Watchmen strike deadline slides to Friday night

Wednesday passed without a walkout. Forwarders now plan around midnight Friday at LA and Long Beach

At 5pm Pacific on Wednesday 4 November, the strike deadline at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach passed with no picket lines. That evening the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), the employers’ group, said it and ILWU Local 26, a unit of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), “have agreed to extend their contract through midnight Pacific Time on Friday night, November 6,” according to FreightWaves. Local 26 represents about 250 watchmen, the security staff at marine terminals. Talks resume on Friday with federal mediators.

This is the second time the cliff has moved. The first possible strike date was 1 November. That became 5pm on 4 November. Now it is midnight on Friday, which is 08:00 UTC on Saturday 7 November.

What we think is going on

Our view: neither side wants to be blamed for closing the two busiest container ports in the country over a small unit. Both keep picking more time over a fight. That is good news for cargo. It is bad news for planning.

Each extension is short, two to three days. So forwarders get no clear runway. Truck appointments, last free days, vessel cut-offs and rail moves all have to be booked against a deadline that may or may not hold. That uncertainty has a cost even if no one ever walks out.

Think about how a forwarder actually uses the week. Thursday and Friday are when weekend pickups get booked and customers get told when their boxes will land at a warehouse. With a cliff at midnight Friday, every one of those promises comes with a caveat. Some shippers will pay for extra trucks to clear boxes early. Others will hold back export bookings until Monday. Both choices cost money, and neither shows up in any strike figure.

The repeated short extensions also suggest the gap at the table is narrow enough to keep talking, but not yet closed.

We also think the bigger daily problem on this gateway is not the strike. It is the rail backlog, which is already adding days and charges to US inland moves.

Why 250 people matter so much

The numbers are lopsided. Local 26 makes up about 2% of the ILWU workforce at the two ports, Transport Topics (Bloomberg) reported. But the PMA says “a strike by this small group would put at risk operations at terminals that handle more than half of the ports’ cargo.” That includes roughly 85% of cargo at Long Beach and 33% at Los Angeles.

The reason is solidarity. The PMA has warned that other ILWU members, including longshore workers and marine clerks covered by separate contracts, “are expected to honor Local 26 picket lines,” FreightWaves reported. If they do, vessel loading, container-yard work and truck gates at the affected terminals could stop. Trains.com put it plainly on 1 November: “If they strike, other ILWU workers may not cross picket lines, which could halt operations at those facilities.”

Together the two ports handle 31% of US seaport container traffic, according to Trains.com. So a stoppage at terminals moving more than half their cargo would be felt well beyond Southern California.

The PMA’s tone has stayed calm. “Negotiations will continue on Friday with the help of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service,” it said in its 4 November statement. It added: “PMA remains committed to reaching a fair agreement at the bargaining table” that “avoids disruption at the nation’s two busiest ports.”

The union has said less. Trains.com reported that “The union has not outlined the terms it is seeking.” Local 26 President Luisa Gratz did not respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg, according to Transport Topics. The PMA has said its latest offer includes wage increases and pension improvements, Trains.com reported.

Some background. The watchmen’s previous agreement expired in July 2025, and they have kept working under extensions since, FreightWaves reported. Members authorised a strike after more than a year of bargaining. The main West Coast longshore contract, covering about 22,000 workers at 29 ports, runs to 2028 and is not part of these talks.

The gateway was already slow

A strike would land on a port complex that is short of rail capacity.

Kuehne+Nagel’s weekly port update on 3 November put rail dwell at 10 days in Los Angeles and 11 days in Long Beach. Rail dwell is how long an import container sits at the port waiting for a train inland.

FreightWaves reported on 28 October that 35,688 import containers were waiting for on-dock rail across the two ports as of 26 October. Of those, 10,562 had been on terminal for at least nine days. Los Angeles had 19,626 boxes waiting, with 8,133 of them at nine days or more. Long Beach had 16,062, with 2,429 at nine days or more.

A Union Pacific spokesperson told FreightWaves that “Strong international volumes have tightened rail car supply.” Port of Long Beach’s Noel Hacegaba said “some smaller inland rail hubs are experiencing longer delays than major destinations.”

Put the two together. If gates and yards stop for even a day or two, rail-bound boxes that are already late fall further behind. And the queue for trains does not reset when the picket lines come down.

What happened last time clerks walked out

The closest recent example is November 2012. Then, about 450 clerical workers in the ILWU’s clerks’ local struck at Los Angeles and Long Beach. About 10,000 dockworkers refused to cross their picket lines, the Christian Science Monitor reported. Ten of the ports’ 14 terminals closed. The strike lasted eight days, from 27 November to 5 December. Some ships were redirected to other West Coast ports. Port officials estimated about $760 million a day in cargo was kept from being delivered.

The lesson for today: a small unit can close most of a port if the larger union honours its lines. That is exactly the risk the PMA is flagging now. The difference is that federal mediators are already in the room, and both sides have twice chosen to extend rather than walk.

What forwarders should do this weekend

Treat midnight Friday as real until it is not. In practice:

  • Check terminal exposure. Find out which terminals your boxes are at or heading to. Long Beach exposure is far higher than Los Angeles, on the PMA’s 85% versus 33% split.
  • Pull forward what you can. Book truck appointments for Thursday and Friday for import boxes that are ready. Every box out of the gate before Saturday is one less to argue about.
  • Watch last free days. Last free day is the final day a box can sit at a terminal before storage charges start. If it falls on 7 or 8 November, move it or plan for the cost.
  • Talk to customers about charges now. Demurrage is the terminal’s storage charge for a box left past free time. Detention is the carrier’s charge for keeping its container outside past free time. Customers will ask who pays if gates close. Check your contracts and your carriers’ tariffs for force majeure wording, the clauses that excuse delays caused by events outside anyone’s control. Have the answer ready before Monday.
  • Keep exports moving. Confirm vessel cut-offs with carriers. If a ship cannot work cargo on Saturday, ask whether the cut-off or the call will slide.
  • Keep rail options open. With rail dwell at 10 to 11 days, some customers may be better served by transloading into domestic trailers or using a different inland ramp. Price those options now, not after a stoppage.

None of this is wasted if a deal is struck. Most of it helps with the rail backlog anyway.

Our prediction

Our prediction: a deal or another extension is announced before midnight Pacific on Friday 6 November. If picket lines do go up, we expect no stoppage at the named terminals to last longer than 72 hours before 30 November. We also expect the rail backlog, not the strike, to be the main source of delay and extra charges on this gateway through the end of November. If a stoppage does last beyond three days, we expect carriers to start diverting ships within a week, as happened in 2012.

Sources

Read us on Google? Add Forwarder News as a preferred source to see more of our stories in Top Stories.