Port backups don't ease despite new hires.

With 3,000 casual workers yet to be hired, the backlog of vessels waiting to unload their imports at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has gotten worse and is expected to last into November.

As many as 71 ships have been in the port on a given day this month, nearly double the usual number. As a result, the turnover time between a vessel arriving and leaving one of the ports has stretched to six or seven days. Until mid-June, when the congestion worsened, it normally took three or four days.

The logjam will only get worse when dockworkers take Labor Day vacations--as the influx of holiday season merchandise begins its peak time, September through November.

"It's like a snowball going down a hill. It continues to grow in size," said Capt. Manny Aschemeyer, executive director of the Southern California Marine Exchange, which oversees vessel traffic control. "We could see this thing stretch into close to the end of the year."

At least 20 ships are scheduled to arrive at the two ports in each of several days this week, he said.

Logistics managers for big box retailers such as Atlanta-based Home Depot Inc. have visited the ports to complain about the delays, maritime officials said.

"The shippers are not happy," said Robin Lanier, executive director of the Waterfront Coalition, an importers' trade group. "But it's been going on for such a long time that this has become a fact of life. People are starting to look around and say, 'How else can I move my freight and avoid L.A.-Long Beach?'"

But diverting cargo--particularly in the 4,800 to 8,200 TEU (20-foot equivalent unit) ships the two ports handle--is not easy. Most ports lack the terminal capacity, have channels too shallow to handle larger ships or already have too many customers they are obligated to prioritize.

Logistics is also a problem.

"You don't easily divert those kinds of ships," said Aschemeyer. "The ships that come here full have half their cargo staying here (in Southern California) and the other half going to other parts of the country."

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union placed the blame for the delays on the Pacific Maritime Association, the bargaining arm of the steamship lines, for delaying the hiring of additional longshoremen to handle the increase in cargo.

"We are digging ourselves out of a hole right now," said Greg Mitre, who is on the executive board of the ILWU's San Pedro-based Local 13. "It's put an undue burden on the existing longshoremen."

Last month, container traffic at Long Beach totaled 529,663 TEUs, up 23 percent from the 430,686 TEUs during the year-earlier period. At L.A., traffic increased to 676,399 TEUs, up 9.9 percent from the 615,714 TEUs moved in July 2003.

PMA officials denied they took too long to hire more workers. The two sides spent several weeks in negotiations before the PMA agreed earlier this month to hire 3,000 new casual workers and promote 1,000 casuals to registered union status by the end of the year, the PMA said.

"It was the aim of the PMA and its members to add additional workers onto the docks as quickly as possible," said Jason Greenwald, a consultant to the PMA.

The cargo delays extend beyond the ports.

Union Pacific Corp. and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., the two railroads serving the ports, also have major equipment and staff shortages and have been rejecting orders.

ILWU officials said they are speeding up the hiring and training process to bring 50 new casuals onto the docks each week, beginning this week.

"It's going to take them weeks if not months to get them trained if not prepared for the job," said Aschemeyer. "So that is not a quick-fix solution."