The Los Angeles–Long Beach watchmen strike is off for today — talks now run to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, and the gate risk is still live

There will be no watchmen's strike at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach today. The Pacific Maritime Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 26 agreed on Oct. 30 to extend their contract through 5 p.m. Pacific time on Wednesday, Nov. 4, pushing back a walkout that had been set to begin when the previous extension expired today, according to Seatrade Maritime News on Oct. 31, reporting the association's Oct. 30 release.

“Negotiations will continue with the assistance of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service,” the Pacific Maritime Association stated in its release. “PMA remains committed to reaching a fair agreement at the bargaining table that avoids disruption at the nation's two busiest ports.” The new deadline falls the day after the midterm elections. The extension is a postponement, not a settlement: the two sides have yet to reach agreement on a new contract, and the association said earlier in the week that every tentative agreement reached to date has been on a union proposal and that significant differences remain, including on wage proposals.

The reason roughly 250 security watchmen can hold up the nation's busiest container complex is arithmetic. Local 26 members make up about 2% of the ILWU workforce in the San Pedro Bay complex, but they work at terminals that handle more than half of the two ports' combined cargo — including 85% of the cargo at the Port of Long Beach and 33% at the Port of Los Angeles. The watchmen provide security inside those terminals. Longshore workers, marine clerks and other ILWU members work under a separate coastwide contract that runs through 2028 and are not party to this dispute — but, the association states, they are not expected to cross a Local 26 picket line, which could halt vessel, yard and gate operations at the affected terminals. The gate is where that halt reaches trucking directly: no gate operations, no drayage moves.

The underlying dispute is now well over a year old. The watchmen's previous agreement expired in July 2025, and they have worked under extensions since, through more than a year of negotiations. The employers' offer includes wage increases and pension improvements, according to the association, which also states that full-time watchmen currently earn an average of more than $170,000 a year plus employer-paid health care and pension benefits. The local has not publicly detailed its demands. Both ports have kept their distance while urging a deal: the Port of Los Angeles encouraged the parties to keep negotiating in good faith, and Port of Long Beach Chief Executive Noel Hacegaba noted that the affected watchmen provide security within individual terminals while port-wide security from the Harbor Patrol and the Long Beach Police Department continues uninterrupted, and that the port itself is not a party to the negotiations.

The extension lands on a complex that is already strained on the rail side, as CDLWire reported last week. Both ports handled record monthly cargo in September — Los Angeles about 1.04 million TEUs and Long Beach 997,177 TEUs — and 35,688 import containers were still waiting for on-dock rail service on Oct. 26, with 10,562 of them on terminals for at least nine days. Average rail dwell across the complex rose to 7.19 days in September, while truck dwell stayed comparatively fluid. The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors made the connection explicitly: distributors that rely on imported inventory should watch the negotiations, because even a brief stoppage could delay container availability, inland transportation and replenishment schedules, particularly amid the existing rail backlogs.

For drayage and port drivers, the working facts are these. Gates operate as normal today and Monday; there is no picket line to plan around this weekend. The risk has not been removed, it has been rescheduled — to 5 p.m. Pacific time on Wednesday, Nov. 4, with federal mediators at the table and, by the employers' own account, significant differences still open on wages. If a load can be pulled forward ahead of Wednesday, the backlog numbers argue for doing it; if your freight sits at one of the affected terminals on Wednesday afternoon, watch your terminal's operating notices rather than the headlines, because a picket line at a single terminal is what turns this dispute into your missed appointment.