Seaport Labor Spat Leaves Apples In Limbo

YAKIMA, Wash. — Saul Ruiz stopped his zigzagging forklift drivers at the Apple King packing warehouse from loading a truck with shrink-wrapped apple boxes bound for Vietnam by way of the Tacoma seaport.

A few minutes later, after a phone call that left him scratching his head, he whistled and waved his hand. His crews resumed loading, while he rerouted the truck to Vancouver, British Columbia.

Tacoma is congested because of an ongoing labor dispute at ports up and down the West Coast, and the ripple effects are causing similar confusion and a backlog for dozens of packers in Yakima and beyond trying to move a record 140 million boxes of apples.

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