Adjacent to the 4th of July, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) will observe July 5, 2017, to recognize the 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike—specifically “Bloody Thursday.” Commemorating the legacy of those who worked to unionize the West Coast ports, “Bloody Thursday” is an official holiday for all ILWU workers on the West Coast.
This year, unless a terminal is willing to provide holiday pay to their ILWU workers, the terminals will be closed from 07:00 AM PT on July 4th to 8:00 AM PT on July 6th.
It is also important to note that because of the holiday, the ILWU workers reporting to work on July 1-3 tend to have a higher percentage of temporary ‘laborers.’ In comparison to the regular ILWU crews, this generally affects the efficiency of the port. As a result, congestion is anticipated for cargo picked up on or after July 6th. Usually this congestion continues for about fourteen days in the LA/LB ports—clearing up more quickly in the Seattle/Tacoma and Oakland ports.
Deringer recommends that shippers try to recover any containers from the terminals before July 3rd to avoid being caught in the congestion. Although we don’t yet have an exact listing of which terminals will be open and closed over the weekend, it is likely that many terminals will be open on Saturday, July 1st to help proactively move containers out of the terminal.
Please note, a port of LA/LB container terminal schedule for both Independence Day and “Bloody Thursday” can be found on the PierPass website – here. For any questions, please send an email to Deringer’s Marketing Department.
