A California port work disruption briefly unsettled delivery schedules for Hawaii’s two largest ocean cargo transportation firms today.

Dockworkers at the connected ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach severely dialed back work Thursday night and continued a slowdown or stoppage into a nine-hour daytime shift today, according to an organization representing ship operators. But crews returned to work this evening.

The action by the largest shipping industry union on the West Coast, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 13, slowed or stopped cargo from being loaded onto a pair of Matson Inc. and Pasha Hawaii ships scheduled to depart for Honolulu Saturday morning.

Matson warned customers about the labor problem, and delayed the scheduled Saturday departure for its Matsonia containership from Long Beach to 11 a.m. from 4 a.m.

“It is unclear when labor will be made available, but we will update you as information for today’s night shift and subsequent shifts becomes available,” the company said in a message to customers this morning.

Pasha also has a scheduled departure for its Enterprise containership Saturday from Long Beach.

Chad Buck, president and CEO of Hawaii Foodservice Alliance LLC, the largest perishable food distributor in the state, said this morning there’s a lot of hope and concern over the situation.

“Right now, everybody’s holding their breath over whether the labor will show up for this evening’s shift,” he said. “There’s a lot of long lines (trucks loaded with containers at the port) and people worrying.”

Buck also said, “The professional men and women of the ILWU execute difficult and dangerous jobs day in and day out to keep Hawaii’s food and supplies moving in to our state. My hope is that they are able to staff up to get the ports moving quickly as Hawaii is in no position to miss a sailing.”

Typically, Hawaii cargo via the two carriers takes four or five days to cross the Pacific Ocean, so any impacts on store shelves from the labor disruption won’t be immediate, and may not be noticeable if resolved this evening or relatively shortly thereafter.

ILWU dockworkers and employers have been without a labor contract covering 29 West Coast ports since the last one expired in 2022.

The Pacific Maritime Association, an organization handling labor negotiations with the ILWU, said today that ILWU Local 13 took a “concerted action to withhold labor” at Los Angeles and Long Beach ports that resulted in widespread worker shortages.

PMA said a majority of jobs for Thursday night’s shift went unfilled, including all jobs for cargo-handling equipment operators needed to load and unload cargo. PMA also said that because not enough workers showed up, those who did were released because of insufficient labor to operate the shipping terminals.

“The action by the union has effectively shut down the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — the largest gateway for maritime trade in the United States,” the organization said.

ILWU Local 13 offered a different version of events. The union said it held its monthly membership meeting Thursday evening, and that this attracted several thousand members.

Then today, Good Friday, members of the union who observe religious holidays “took the opportunity to celebrate with their families,” the union said in a statement.