Southern California may be known for celebrities and glitz, but the true action has long been about 40 miles away from Hollywood, in a place where high-visibility coveralls and hardhats dominate.
For the past 25 years, the San Pedro Bay port complex – comprising the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach – has been the celebrity of the shipping world and an economic driver of California’s huge economy. The busiest seaport in the western hemisphere and one of the busiest in the world, approximately 15,000 longshore workers usually pull shifts around the clock, moving billions of dollars’ worth of cargo in cars, agriculture, auto parts, toys, clothes and furniture.
