Shipping lines, workers refuse to yield as ports idle
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SAN FRANCISCO — Cargo ships lay at anchor offshore, waiting to be unloaded, and trucks with fresh produce lined up outside West Coast ports yesterday after dockworkers were locked out in a dispute that could cost the U.S. economy $1 billion a day.
West Coast shipping lines said they will keep the ports closed until the longshoremen agree to extend their expired contract. But the 10,500-member union said it will not budge until the lockout is ended.
The Bush administration said that it is concerned about the effect on the struggling U.S. economy but that it has no immediate plans to break the impasse by declaring a national emergency.
The West Coast ports handle about half the nation's oceangoing cargo. Hawai'i alone relies on shipping for about 90 percent of its goods. A five-day shutdown would cost the U.S. economy an estimated $4.7 billion — with the losses snowballing to $19.4 billion if the shutdown lasts 10 days, according to a study commissioned by the shipping lines.
Representatives of the shipping lines and dockworkers met yesterday but reported no major progress in the talks. The parties are expected to meet tomorrow and haven't set a time, said Tom Edwards, a spokesman for the carriers.
The two sides will meet today with a federal mediator to hear what kind of assistance the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service can offer them, union spokesman Michael Perri said. The meeting doesn't mean that the union has agreed to a have federal mediator involved in the contract talks, Perri said.
A frail labor peace collapsed Sunday when dockworkers were ordered off their jobs indefinitely at all 29 of the nation's major West Coast ports. The two sides are at odds over pensions and other benefits, as well as cargo-handling technology that the union fears would wipe out jobs.
Dozens of ships waiting to be unloaded dropped anchor outside the ports in cities including Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., according to the maritime association — including 46 in Southern California ports alone. Seventy other vessels already in port waited to be loaded or unloaded.
Economists warned that a drawn-out work stoppage will ripple through the U.S. economy. Stores will not have merchandise they need. Produce could rot on the docks. Assembly lines may come to a halt for lack of parts.
Maritime association president Joseph Miniace ordered the lockout Sunday and accused the union of disrupting work by understaffing operations and dispatching workers not skilled for specific jobs. He demanded the dockworkers agree to extend their contract.
Jim Spinosa, president and chief negotiator for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said: "The ILWU will not be intimidated. We will not extend the contract."
Fearing the shutdown could last through the week and beyond, a business group called for federal intervention.
"You've got to understand the ports have been closed, essentially, for three days," said Robin Lanier, executive director of the West Coast Waterfront Coalition, which represents Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot and other major retailers and manufacturers that use the ports. "If we get much past the fifth day, this thing is really going to start to hurt."
Bush administration officials, who have been meeting with shipping executives and major users of the ports since June, maintained a studied distance from the dispute yesterday, saying only that they hoped the two sides would agree to mediation. But they hinted that they would act swiftly if no settlement is reached.
"At this point we're urging both parties to resolve their differences and avail themselves of the (mediation) services," White House spokeswoman Clare Buchan said early yesterday.
Later in the day, presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer noted the gravity of the coastwide paralysis, saying, "If it goes on for even a short period of time, it's a problem for the economy."
Few observers doubt the president will act quickly to end the lockout if the two sides can't settle their differences within days.
Most administration attention now focuses on the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which gives the president the power to call for an 80-day cooling-off period.
Under the last contract, a full-time longshoreman makes an average of $80,000 a year, while the most experienced foremen average $167,000.
The talks began deteriorating during the summer, and over Labor Day weekend the union stopped approving rolling extensions of the contract, which officially ended July 1.
