Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said April 12 that there are no contingency plans if labor negotiations turn into a work stoppage or strike.

The 22,000-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association jointly announced July 26 they have reached a tentative agreement on health care benefits.

Negotiators with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association are discussing a plan to allow all West Coast marine terminals to open an hour earlier, at 6 a.m., under what’s called “a double flex.”

West Coast longshore workers voted overwhelmingly to ratify a five-year labor contract with port terminal operators, formally ending the labor dispute that caused a logjam that disrupted trucking and intermodal operations for months.

International Longshore and Warehouse Union leaders recommended approval of a tentative five-year contract, clearing the way for a vote by 20,000 rank-and-file dockworkers over the next month.

Management and labor groups who have been negotiating a new West Coast dock workers’ contract traded accusations as the talks drag on for almost six months without an agreement.