ASSOCIATED PRESS
A member of the ILWU strolled by waiting ships and idle cranes yesterday at the port of Los Angeles.
Bush in court Washington >> President George W. Bush said he's asking a federal judge to end a 10-day lockout of about 10,500 union workers at U.S. West Coast ports that's disrupting auto plants, food shipments and trade with Asia.
to open ports
He asks a federal judge to order
Matson ups fuel fees
the docks reopened for an 80-day
"cooling-off period"
Truckers foresee logjam
History and facts about Taft-Hartley
Taft-Hartley Act’s specifications
Bloomberg News
"The work stoppage is hurting our entire economy," Bush said at the White House after receiving a report by a fact-finding board. The crisis "is hurting the security of our country," he said. The U.S. economy is losing up to $1 billion a day and the farm economy is losing 1,000 jobs a day, he said.
His order directs the attorney general to seek an injunction under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act to end the lockout that started Sept. 29.
"The seeds of distrust have been widely sown, poisoning the atmosphere of mutual trust and respect which could enable a resolution of seemingly intractable issues," said the report, signed by panel chairman William Brock, Patrick Hardin and Dennis Nolan. "We have no confidence that the parties will resolve the West Coast ports dispute within a reasonable time."
The shutdown cost the economy as much as $19.4 billion in the first 10 days, consulting firm Martin Associates estimated in a study for carriers.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. planned to stop production at an Illinois auto plant tomorrow because of a parts shortage, and Dole Food Co. sued a group of shipping companies to retrieve 8 million pounds of bananas at the Port of Los Angeles.
"All of this will only worsen as time goes on," Bush said. The shutdown also prevents shipment of supplies the U.S. military needs, he said.
The Pacific Maritime Association closed ports in California, Oregon and Washington, saying the International Longshore and Warehouse Union slowed work during contract talks.
The two sides started contract talks in May and deadlocked over the expanded use of computers and scanners at the docks, which the carriers say they need to make ports more efficient. The union agreed to changes carriers requested in return for union members getting all jobs created by the new equipment.
Bush said the government will continue working with both sides to pursue a settlement.
Opening ports under the Taft-Hartley Act would start a cargo clearing that may take as many as six to seven weeks, estimated Joe Miniace, chief executive of the carriers' association.
Richard Mead, president of ILWU Local 10 in San Francisco, said "you've got a lot of disgruntled people out there, these are not good conditions to go back to work." He wouldn't estimate how long it may take to move cargo backed up at the docks. "They are going to pressure us to work fast and the union is going to press to work safe," he said.
The union told members to adhere to health and safety regulations when talks reached an impasse. The carriers said production at the ports fell as much as 54 percent and accused the union of staging a slowdown. The carriers would refer the issue to a federal judge in the event of slow union handling when the ports open, Miniace told reporters.
"It may get complicated for the government if backups continue," said Daniel Mitchell, a professor of management and public affairs at the University of California in Los Angeles. "Are we going to have a federal judge look into every single loading crane?"
Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business organization, agreed with the Bush decision to seek an injunction.
"The president took the right approach to let people make an effort to resolve this issue," he said in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington. "But you have a small number of workers who are the highest-paid union people in this country - - unless maybe the airline pilots make a little more -- and they just can't seem to get themselves to a resolution."
Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, which represents General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., Xerox Corp. and 14,000 other companies, praised Bush's decision to seek the injunction given the "potential for major damage to an already fragile economy."
A Fremont, California, plant of New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. that's owned by General Motors and Toyota Motor Corp. came back on line only with parts delivered by airfreight.
The Sept. 11 attacks and the port shutdown "are a wakeup call for U.S. manufacturers that there are real risks to moving so much of the supply chain overseas," said David Blond, chief economist for Arlington, Virginia-based freight consultant MergeGlobal Inc. "In the future companies will weigh all the risks in balance instead of going only for the low-cost option."
U.S. Customs Service officials are preparing to have inspectors work overtime and bring in extra X-ray machines to get cargo moving quickly through West Coast ports, said John Heinrich, director of field operations for the Los Angeles area.
The Customs Service began developing a plan last week to clear up cargo backlogs caused by the lockout. Inspectors at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the two largest U.S. ports, will be available 24 hours a day until the backlog is cleared, Heinrich said.
Dole estimates the value of its shipment, which will ripen within two days, at more than $1.7 million.
"We have no idea what shape those ports are in," said Dan Irvin, spokesman for Mitsubishi's plant in Normal, Illinois, that makes 850 cars and a day such as Dodge and Chrysler coupes for DaimlerChrysler AG.
The fact-finding mission to the West Coast included Brock, secretary of labor and a U.S. trade representative under President Ronald Reagan; Nolan, a member of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service Panels of Arbitration; and Hardin, a former counsel overseeing enforcement litigation at the National Labor Relations Board.
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The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which allows a president to intervene in a labor dispute: History and facts about Taft-Hartley
>> The act's national emergency provisions have been invoked by presidents on 35 occasions.>> In the first year after its passage, Taft-Hartley emergency provisions were used in seven disputes.
>> Before President Bush's action, Jimmy Carter was the last president to invoke Taft-Hartley. He attempted to stop a strike by coal miners in 1978. The court refused to grant the 80-day cooling off period but ordered miners back to work.
>> Injunctions have been denied only twice: in the coal miner's strike and in a 1971 grain dispute involving 200 grain elevator employees.
>> Richard Nixon was the last president to invoke Taft-Hartley to end a dock strike, in 1971.
>> Cooling off periods have been invoked in all 11 coastwide dock stoppages that have occurred since the law went into effect in 1947, more than any other industry.
>> President Bush is the first to invoke the act in a lockout.
>> Taft-Hartley was passed to prevent laborers from striking during national emergencies. President Truman vetoed the act, but it was passed anyway.
>> The act was amended in 1959, repealing the requirement that union officials sign anti-communist affidavits.
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President Bush used his authority under the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 to intervene in the port dispute. About the law: Taft-Hartley Act’s specifications
>> The president can convene a board of inquiry to investigate the dispute if he thinks a prolonged lockout or strike will "imperil the national safety or health.">> The board will report on the position of both sides and the impact of the dispute, but cannot make any recommendations.
>> After receiving the report, the president can direct the attorney general to ask a federal court with jurisdiction over the dispute to stop the strike or lockout.
>> The government must show that the strike or lockout affects a substantial part of an entire industry, and that it "will imperil the national health or safety."
>> If the court agrees and issues an injunction, an 80-day cooling off period begins and both sides must return to work.
>> If no agreement is reached within 60 days, the inquiry board must issue a second public report to the president that includes current positions of both sides, efforts made toward agreement, a statement by each party of its position and the employers' last contract offer.
>> Between days 61 and 75, the National Labor Relations Board will conduct a secret ballot vote by workers on the employer's last offer. The election results must be certified to the attorney general within five days.
>> The president is required to send a final report to Congress on the Taft-Hartley process. The report may include recommendations on how to settle the dispute.
>> The court injunction is lifted after 80 days, and the parties can continue a strike or lockout if agreement has not been reached.
Labor Mediation and Conciliation
Pacific Maritime Association
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
