LA, Long Beach port dockworker absences decline as omicron eases

Things are turning around for West Coast dockworkers unable to work due to the omicron spike last month, a welcome sign for the more than 100 ships waiting off the coast to unload at the U.S.’s two largest ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The number of absences reported to port operators each day “continues to drop, which is great news and is also having a positive impact on our ability to operate at more normal levels of productivity,” Alan McCorkle, president of Yusen Terminals LLC at the Port of Los Angeles, said Wednesday.

That tracks with 128 absences reported by the Pacific Maritime Association Tuesday—almost half the number of a week earlier—and down from a peak in the middle of January.

Dockworkers have been hit hard by the omicron variant, with positive Covid-19 infections among Longshore and Warehouses Union workers on the West Coast reaching 1,878 through Jan. 28. That’s more positive cases among the almost 15,000 ILWU members than in all of 2021. About 80% of last month’s reported infections were at the U.S.’s two largest ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to the PMA, which negotiates contacts with the ILWU for 70 companies at 29 ports on the coast.

The total container-ship backup at the San Pedro Bay ports continues to hover at elevated levels, with 101 waiting Tuesday, according to data from the Marine Exchange of Southern California. American importers are struggling to meet demand as inventories remain lean and supply chains are strained to move unprecedented amounts of cargo, especially from Asia.