US West Coast Ports Reopen After Government Intervention

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, October 10, 2002

US West Coast Ports Reopen After Government Intervention

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US West Coast dock workers are returning to work on Wednesday after a federal judge ordered the reopening of the ports to end a 10-day shutdown that costs the weak US economy dearly and arouses alarm among business communities.

Both the dockworkers union and the shipping companies said that29 major West Coast ports will fully reopen on Wednesday night after a federal court on Tuesday granted a temporary injunction ending the lockout that has bottled up ports from San Diego to Seattle.

President George W. Bush requested the emergency order Tuesday after a White House panel informed him that "seeds of distrust" had so poisoned relations between shipping lines and dockworkers that the two sides were unlikely to reach an agreement on their own.

Upon Bush's request, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco issued the order to reopen the western ports, citing that the government's arguments were "very compelling." The judge will hold a hearing next week on the 80-day cooling-off period mandated by the Taft-Hartley Act.

Both sides are scheduled to appear in court Oct. 16, when Alsupwill consider converting his temporary order into a preliminary injunction.

Talks between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents shipping companies and terminal operators, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents 10,500 dockworkers in the West Coast, broke down Sundayon terms of extending a labor contract that already expired on July 1.

The PMA locked out the longshoremen 10 days ago to protest the ILWU's "bad faith" in negotiating a new labor contract, including using the "strike-with-pay" tactics. The ILWU demanded that it would get control of any new jobs created by future application ofadvanced cargo-handling technologies which could cut port jobs.

The continued shutdown of Pacific ports, which handled 300 billion US dollar worth of goods exported to and imported from theAsia-Pacific countries every year, dealt a huge blow to the US economy which is still struggling with the recession.

At least 200 large cargo vessels are docking outside the western ports with billions of dollars worth of goods ranging frombananas, toys to auto parts waiting to be unloaded and distributedto businesses, which have been waiting anxiously for the upcoming year-end shopping holidays. It is estimated that the lockout coststhe US economy about 2 billion dollars per day.

Although the two sides are set to resume work at the ports, butit will take some time to clear the crowded docks of cargo, and new disputes are set to emerge in the absence of a labor contract that bans work stoppages.

James Spinosa, president of the ILWU, and other union officialssaid they would resist any order to resume work at full speed. "We're going to continue to 'work safe,'" Spinosa, using a phrase associated with work slowdowns, said.

But federal judge would not tolerate such slowdowns, countered PMA President Joseph Miniace.

Despite the reopening of the ports, the damage of the shutdown has yet to be fully felt.

"Even if the dockworkers go back to work, it's going to take four to six weeks to move this merchandise from the docks to the stores and that's cutting it very close (to the start of the holiday shopping season around Thanksgiving)," said Tracy Mullin, president and chief executive officer of the National Retail Federation, a U.S. trade association .

Economic analysts said the fourth-quarter earnings estimates for many businesses could come down by 5 percent to 15 percent dueto the disruption.

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