LONG BEACH , Calif. — Waterfront employers in Los Angeles-Long Beach reached an agreement with an International Longshore and Warehouse Union local Wednesday that will allow for uninterrupted night gates under the new PierPass program.

ILWU Local 94, the foremen's local, had scheduled a stop-work meeting on the Aug. 8 night shift. If the meeting were to take place, marine terminals would have been unable to operate the Monday night PierPass gate.

After conferring with employers, ILWU Local 94 officers agreed to postpone their stop-work meeting until Aug. 11, and more importantly, to allow any foremen who are scheduled to work that night to do so. The general longshore and clerks' locals canceled their August stop-work meetings.

Terminal operators on July 23 launched the PierPass program, which is designed to reduce congestion and pollution by encouraging shippers to move more cargo during the off-peak hours. The official PierPass gates are Mondays through Thursday, 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., and Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Longshore locals, under terms stipulated in the waterfront contract, are allowed to hold one stop-work meeting each month to discuss union issues. In the past, the stop-work meetings were held on weekday evenings when port traffic is usually light.

With the implementation of PierPass, though, the weekday evening shifts are experiencing higher traffic volumes as importers and exporters seek to avoid paying the $40 per-TEU traffic mitigation fee that terminals charge on containers that move during the daytime hours.

The day-use fee has proven to be a greater incentive for shippers to patronize the off-peak gates than employers had anticipated when they developed PierPass. The goal of terminal operators was to shift about 20 percent of port traffic to the off-peak hours by the end of the first year of operation.

PierPass night and weekend gates have surpassed that figure from day one. During the first week of operation, terminals experienced a daily average of 8,411 gate moves during the off-peak gates, or about 32 percent of the total daily volume of 26,000 gate moves.

The top performance so far was last Saturday, when 11,183 containers were handled. Monday's volume of 8,644 was the record for a weekday night gate, said Bruce Wargo, PierPass president.

Wargo said PierPass staff continue to correct the customer service problems that surfaced during the first week of operation. Terminal operators have improved their communications with shippers and truckers, and the night staff at the terminals is improving productivity as it becomes more familiar with the terminals' operations.

Jim McKenna, president of the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents employers in contract negotiations, said he was impressed with the willingness of the ILWU to postpone or cancel their August stop-work meetings so the PierPass night gates could operate as scheduled.

"This was an important accommodation. In this industry, cargo can find other ports," McKenna said. The ILWU does not want to lose cargo to other jurisdictions, he said.

By Bill Mongelluzzo