Automation is taking 40 to 50 percent of the dockworker and shippers jobs in Los Angeles. In an effort to protect jobs, labor negotiations have begun over a new contract that would affect 20,000 dockworkers with West Coast. If there is not a consensus, a strike could cost the U.S. economy up to $2 billion.
See "U.S. Port Labor Talks Turn on Automation Cutting Workers", James Nash, Bloomberg News, September 18, 2014