The dramatic move by the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents more than 80 shipping lines and terminal operators, will likely have a ripple effect in Hawai‘i — which gets 90 percent of its goods by container ship — and comes after the group said that longshore workers were staging work slowdowns yesterday afternoon in Oakland, as well as Seattle and Tacoma, Wash.

Hawai‘i businesses that rely on shipping goods to and from the Islands were anxiously waiting to hear from major carriers CSX Lines and Matson Navigation Co. officials for comment on the possible effects of the shutdown.

Officials at the Harbor Operations Branch of the state Department of Transportation said they were unsure how many Matson and CSX container boats were due to leave the West Coast this weekend or arrive in West Coast ports.

Hawai‘i businesses for weeks have braced for any possible slowdown or strike, stocking up on several weeks of inventory as tension has grown on the West Coast.

Keith Vieira, senior vice president and area director of operations of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, said he did not expect to have problems with supplies to Starwood’s hotels in the Islands.

“We don’t expect at this point to have any problems,” Vieira said. “We’ve been working with all of our suppliers. We feel that the suppliers have been able to assure us that we have the things we need.”

The board of the shipping lines' association met this morning, according to president Joseph Miniace, and agreed to shutter the ports from 6 p.m. PDT until 8 a.m. Sunday PDT (3 p.m. today to 5 a.m. Sunday Hawai'i time).

Miniace called it “a very, very tough decision,” but one that the association had to make because the union was bargaining in bad faith. “It’s the very last thing we wanted to do. But the union forced us into this.”

A union spokesman said the association was acting unilaterally and that union negotiators wanted to keep talking. The union learned of the lockout this morning when the two sides met for talks, spokesman Jeremy Prillwitz said.

The association has said that a coastwide labor disruption could cost the U.S. economy around $1 billion per day. The ports handle more than $300 billion in imports and exports each year.

Federal mediator travels to West Coast

The Bush administration urged both sides to resolve the dispute, but said it would not intervene to keep the docks open.

“At this point, we are hopeful the two parties will come back to the bargaining table in good faith,” Department of Labor spokeswoman Sue Hensley said. “We are monitoring this very closely.”

Word of the lockout prompted the head of the Federal Mediation Conciliation Service to fly to San Francisco, where both sides have been engaged in steadily deteriorating talks.

Tonight in San Francisco, the two sides agreed to meet tomorow at noon.

But the antagonism has moved beyond the negotiating room. This evening, officials at the Maersk terminal in Oakland said they called police to escort out workers who said that as they were clocking out, shipping line superintendents tried to do the union-protected job of lashing down containers on a vessel that was otherwise ready to head to sea.

Every day the ports are shut takes about a week for kinks and backlogs in the supply to get worked out, said Robin Lanier, whose West Coast Waterfront Coalition represents importers and exporters. Lanier said if the shutdown drags on, major retailers may find themselves without product they’ve slated for special promotions.

Jeff Hull, a spokesman for Matson, said today, before the announcement of the shutdown, that the shipping line had experienced slowdowns last night.

Hull could not say, however, how much the slowdown might have delayed operations.

“It’s a below-average productivity,” he said.

Union disputes 'slowdown'

The union today disputed claims by the association that there had been a work slowdown, claiming instead that dockworkers have been subjected to a dangerous increase in workload for several months.

“There is no slowdown. There never was. We are simply making sure we follow the safety regulations because we have had a rash of deaths and injuries. We have had five deaths in the last six months. People are getting pretty upset about it,” said Steve Stallone, a spokesman for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Stallone said the Pacific Maritime Association created “hysteria” about a strike that prompted businesses to ship more cargo in an effort to stock up in the event of a disruption in work.

“We are currently moving more cargo on West Coast ports than ever before,” Stallone said. “People are rushing their stuff through. There is so much cargo going through the docks that they’re congested. It has been hard to move things around.”

The union represents 10,500 workers at all 29 major Pacific ports. Leaders with the union spent yesterday ensuring local chapters from San Diego to Seattle were aware of a resolution negotiators issued to “work safely in strict accordance with all provisions of the Pacific Coast Marine Safety Code and all federal and state health and safety regulations.”

The two sides have haggled over a new contract for months, and talks have deteriorated steadily.

The events yesterday and today echo the brinksmanship of last week, when shipping lines threatened to lock out longshoremen they charged with an initial round of slowdowns. That dispute was resolved without a lockout.

One of the sticking points in the dock talks has been how to implement new technology, an issue shipping lines have stressed they must resolve before signing a new contract.

Advertiser Staff Writers Dan Nakaso, Mike Gordon, John Duchemin and Kelly Yamanouchi contributed to this report.