LOS ANGELES, Calif. (KERO) — Harbor lock is reaching record breaking numbers as container ships are stacking up at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission voted unanimously to put pressure on carriers to speed up the pace moving containers off the docks to make room to offload ships.

Ramon Ponce de Leon with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union says a new policy in effect today will charge ocean carriers until the container leaves the terminal.

"They approved the $100 tax on the ocean carrier. Any container that is not delivered to a truck within nine days gets hit with a $100 penalty per day and every container that is supposed to be rail bound has six days to move it or get hit with a 100 penalty per day.”

Ramon says prior to COVID, longshoreman at the ports of L.A. and long beach were moving 1.2 million containers per month.

Today he says they're moving nearly 2 million containers per month.

Ramon says the longshoreman are working even harder to get those containers moved off ships.