CSMS#
12-000537 - Business Recovery Operations Post Los Angeles/Long Beach Labor
Strike
12/06/2012 11:12 AM EST
Automated Broker Interface
Business Recovery Operations Post Los Angeles/Long Beach Labor Strike
Summary: From November 27 to December 4, 2012, the International Longshoreman
and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 63 Office Clerical Unit workers (OCU) at the
port of Los Angeles-Long Beach (LA/LB) walked off the job, shutting down all
cargo movement. Subsequently, vessel operators opted to anchor in the harbor or
divert to alternate locations. On December 4, 2012, this labor dispute was
resolved and port operations were restored on Wednesday, December 5, 2012.
Response: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operations in Los
Angeles/Long Beach is committed to support the restoration of Port operations
in LA/LB, specifically with the secure entry processing of international
freight. To alleviate the backlog of vessels that are anchored in the harbor,
CBP Los Angeles is conducting vessel boarding’s to initiate the entry/clearance
requirements so these vessels can dock at terminals as they opened.
CBP Los Angeles is maintaining close communications with its Trade Partners,
specifically; Terminal Operators, Shipping Lines, Brokers/Freight Forwarders,
and Centralized Examination Stations (CES) to assess the status of recovery
operations and adjust as necessary. CBP Los Angeles is:
• Allowing for flexible boarding request(s) to include anchor boardings in
preparation of arrival/discharge.
• Extending gate hours of operation at all terminals to include “Hoot Owl”
shifts from 0300 to 0800 hours, if necessary.
• Extending internal Watch Commander work tours to address questions or
concerns from the Shipping Community.
• Providing additional CBP personnel to accommodate Non-Intrusive Inspection
(NII) appointments at the terminals.
• Deploying additional CBP personnel at terminals with high alarm rates at the
Radiation Portal Monitor (RPM) sites.
• Providing additional CBP personnel to staff the Trade Interface Unit (TIU) to
accommodate inquires from the Trade.
• Extending operating hours at the CESs to support increase demands of cargo
examinations and cargo releases.
As a result of the strike, 17 foreign container vessels were diverted from
LA/LB: The latest information indicates:
• 6 diverted to Mexico;
• 10 diverted to Oakland (none to discharge LA/LB freight); and
• 1 diverted to Panama
Vessel Diverted to Foreign Port and Discharged (CSMS 12-00534): When a vessel
opts to divert to a foreign port of entry to discharge freight, all bills of
lading and pre-filed entries need to be deleted (not cancelled) unless summary
has been filed and monies paid, in which case the entries need to be cancelled.
New entries must be filed at the Southern Border port of arrival for those
shipments. Deletion requests should also be filed for entries subject to Food
and Drug (FDA) and a new Bio-Terrorism Act (BTA) submission should be sent along
with the new entry for the FDA shipments to be filed at the Southern Border.
The deletion requests must be sent to the Trade Interface Unit at: lalb.tiu@dhs.cbp.gov.
Brokers that have multiple entries that were unloaded in Mexico can submit one
request for all entries using an Excel spreadsheet. If you use an Excel
document, list your entry numbers without any dashes (442-1234567-8 should be
shown on the report as 44212345678). The Excel report should be sent to TIU via
email with a header of “Diversion Deletions”. Under these special circumstances
and to make sure that these requests are acted on quickly copy your request to:
philip.s.morin@cbp.dhs.gov .
CBP has assigned additional staff to TIU and the selectivity site to assist in
moving entries as quickly as possible as the Trade works to recover from this
work stoppage.
Vessels Diverted to Foreign Port Not Discharged (CSMS 12-00534): When the
vessel is diverted to a foreign port of entry but not discharged, no change is
needed to the bills of lading or entries. The arrival date for the vessel will
reflect the date the ship returns to LA/LB.
Vessels Diverted to Oakland Not Discharged: Our understanding is that all
vessels diverted to Oakland intend to return to LA/LB. If no LA-bound freight is
discharged in Oakland, no change is needed to the bill of lading or pre-filed
entries. The arrival date for the vessel will reflect the date the ship returns
to LA/LB.
Vessel Diverted to East Coast Location: In the event that a vessel diverts
through the Panama Canal to discharge at an east coast port, the bills of
lading must be updated to reflect the proper port code. Any pre-filed entries
will need to be cancelled and re-filed with the appropriate port code.
Related CSMS No. 12-000534 |