ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

A U.S. dockworkers’ union and their employer group will meet in New Jersey on Jan. 7 with just over a week to hammer out a deal on a new labor contract.

Facing a mid-January deadline to reach a deal, the planned talks are a welcome sign for shippers bracing for a labor disruption that would shut every major port on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts.

The Port of Los Angeles is set for its busiest December on record, and the Port of Long Beach is on track to have its best-ever year after the hubs handled an early and sustained peak season.

Operators of East and Gulf Coast port terminals said they won’t continue bargaining with union dockworkers if it means giving up their right to invest in semi-automated cargo handling equipment.

Imports at the Port of Los Angeles last month totaled 462,740 20-foot-equivalent units, or TEUs. The port also handled 122,716 export containers and 319,570 empty containers in October.

The Port of Long Beach moved nearly 1 million containers in October, beating a record set just two months ago.

The U.S. dockworkers union that halted cargo at every major port on the country’s eastern and southern coasts last month has called off talks with their employers over automation.

Dockworkers are set to meet with their employers in New Jersey, resuming negotiations on the key issue of automation that sparked a three-day strike at East and Gulf Coast ports last month.

Several terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are closed Sept. 27 after a big rig overturned on a vital roadway and the lithium batteries it was carrying caught fire.

Some 45,000 dockworkers at every major eastern and Gulf coast port are threatening to strike Oct. 1.