Even on Sunday: no break in port talks, but strike continues At least they are talking, even on Sunday. Labor contract negotiations are set to resume today in the now six-day-old strike at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Talks had continued past 9 p.m. Saturday night. The labor fight pits the union against a group of shipping lines and cargo terminal operators calling themselves the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Assn. The strike is considered a potentially disastrous event for the Southern California economy because the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the leading contributors to the region's goods movement industry that employs about 595,000 people. Last year, the two ports handled 39.5% of the total value of all cargo container imports entering the U.S. from origins worldwide, according to Jock O'Connell, international trade economist and adviser to Beacon Economics. The strike has crippled the port because of support from the ILWU dockworkers, who have 50,000 members on the U.S. West Coast, in Canada and in Hawaii. Merrilees added that the union has had one pay increase in the past four years. There were no new ship diversions reported on Sunday, said Capt. Dick McKenna, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, which tracks vessel movements. Other than the lightly manned picket lines, the ships were the biggest evidence of the strike on Sunday. Nine cargo container ships were anchored offshore Sunday: the APL London; the Hanjin ships Constantza, Algeciras and Chongqing; the Hyundai Hong Kong; the Ital Contessa; the Kota Wangsa; the Maersk Merlion; and the Liberian-flagged Talassa. Normally, those ships would have gone straight to dock for unloading, but there is no room for them yet because of the strike. Three more container ships are due to arrive today and 11 more container ships are scheduled to arrive on Monday. New airline fees discussed Warehouse workers slam Wal-Mart Port talks shift into higher gear, but strike continues