Shipping lines are planning a partial four-day shutdown of U.S. West Coast ports starting on Thursday, as labor talks between the companies and the union representing 20,000 dockworkers stalled, the companies said on Wednesday.

Loading and unloading of cargo vessels at the 29 ports will be suspended again, as they were last weekend, on Thursday and again on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the companies’ bargaining agent, the Pacific Maritime Association, said in a statement.

Union officials, insisting the two sides are close to reaching a settlement, have characterized shippers’ weekend cutbacks in vessel operations as public posturing aimed at exaggerating the magnitude of the crisis.

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