West Coast ports fall quiet amid labor fuss

Partial lockout causing crippling delays at 29 sites.

LOS ANGELES — Seaports in major West Coast cities that normally are abuzz with the sound of commerce have fallen unusually quiet.

Companies that operate marine terminals didn’t call workers to unload ships Thursday that carry car parts, furniture, clothing, electronics — just about anything made in Asia and destined for U.S. consumers. Contain- ers of U.S. exports won’t get loaded either.

The partial lockout is the result of an increasingly damaging labor dispute between dockworkers and their employers.

The two sides have been negotiating a new contract, and stalled talks have all but paralyzed 29 ports that handle about one-quarter of U.S. international trade — around $1 trillion worth of cargo annually.

The 15 ships scheduled to arrive Thursday at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, by far the nation’s largest complex, will join a line of about 20 others anchored off the coast, waiting for berths at the docks to clear. There are clusters of ships outside the ports of Oakland, and Seattle and Tacoma in Washington.

The Southern California slots weren’t opening Thursday — a holiday for Lincoln’s Birthday.

The ships occupying them were idle because companies that operate marine terminals did not call dockworkers to operate the towering cranes that hoist containers of cargo on and off ships.

Cargo has been moving slowly for months across the troubled West Coast waterfront.