Labor Strife Expands To Long Beach Port; Stokes Fear Of Holiday Gift Shortage

West Coast dock and warehouse workers escalated a work slowdown this week to cover the key ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in an action that analysts said could threaten retailers' holiday sales.

"There's going to be lots of 'out-of-stocks'" in the holiday shopping season, Belus Capital's Brian Sozzi told Fox News Tuesday. "A lot of the big box retailers will be hurt."

But "record levels" of container volume have poured into U.S. ports during both September and October, according a monthly survey posted Monday by the National Retailer's Federation.

"Retailers have done all they can to stock their shelves and build up inventories in case the worst should happen,” the federation's Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said.

Import volume at U.S. ports covered by the Global Port Tracker report 1.59 million containers each in September and October, a number that broke the previous monthly high of 1.52 million set in August.

Cargo volume has been well above average each month since spring, the group said.

But Gold's group lead a coalition of retailers other supply chain stakeholders last week urged federal mediation in the labor dispute.

A labor contract between longshoremen and the Pacific Maritime Association expired July 1 and the work slowdown has already hurt operations in Seattle and Tacoma. Together the four affected ports handle about 80 percent of freight arriving on the West Coast, according to the maritime association.

The lack of a contract have led to "crisis-level congestion" at West Coast ports in recent weeks, prompting "concern of a shutdown," according to the retailers' group.

But FBN's Adam Shapiro told Fox News Tuesday that inadequate infrastructure and a shortage of truck drivers is also playing a major role in current West Cost port congestion.