This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

With idled cargo ships piling up along the coastline, President Obama ordered his labor secretary to California to try to head off a costly shutdown of 29 West Coast ports.

Container ships wait outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where congestion has been building for months. (Credit: KTLA)
Container ships wait outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where congestion has been building for months. (Credit: KTLA)

Obama dispatched Tom Perez on Saturday to jump-start stalled labor talks between shipping companies and the dockworkers’ union. The move ramps up pressure to resolve a dispute that stranded tens of thousands of containers on cargo ships over the holiday weekend.

The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports account for some 40% of the nation’s incoming container cargo, with $1 billion in goods moving through daily. A prolonged shutdown could hobble some Southland businesses and ripple across the U.S. economy.

On Saturday morning, 32 massive ships were anchored outside the ports, unable to unload thousands of cargo containers filled with auto parts, electronics and clothes destined for store shelves across the country.

Click here to read the full story on LATimes.com.