Dockworkers, employers keep negotiating contract as West Coast ports struggle to move cargo

As importers struggle to get their products from massive ships docking at West Coast ports onto store shelves, dockworkers and their employers are negotiating a new contract.

Both sides met over the weekend and Monday, and are expected to reconvene Tuesday.

A shortage of truck beds to carry containers from dockside yards has caused serious congestion for months at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, by far the nation's largest.

Longshoremen have continued working since the contract with their employers expired in July.

According to shipping lines and port terminal operators, over the past week dockworkers have slowed down — just as the last shipments of holiday goods arrive.

The longshoremen's union says workers are simply working safely and that the truck chassis shortage is the real problem.