As COVID-19 rapidly surges throughout the state of California, dockworkers have been heavily infected with reports of approximately 700 workers contracted with the virus and hundreds more taking related leave at the LA/Long Beach Ports.
Port executives and union leaders have grave concerns over the potential for the ports to shut down as they face such severe labor shortages. Officials are campaigning for a vaccination rollout to dockworkers to combat the rise in longshore leave in addition the surge on imports arriving at the terminal.
With thousands of health care workers and first responders in California still awaiting vaccines, officials are pleading the case that dockworkers should be eligible directly after medical and front-line workers. Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach said to the Los Angeles Times “if we don’t do something fast, we are jeopardizing the fluidity of the movement of cargo.”
Currently the ports in San Pedro Bay have fallen about two weeks behind in handling the glut of cargo moving through that gateway. There are currently up to forty containerships at anchor waiting to have their cargo offloaded at any of the 29 berths already handling earlier arrivals.
Mohawk Global will continue to do our best to mitigate these circumstances and keep you informed of additional costs related to your individual shipments. Please reach out to your Mohawk representatives with any questions.
