President Bush is concerned that a prolonged shutdown of West Coast ports would harm the nation’s beleaguered economy and might step in to prevent it, a White House spokesman warned Monday.
“If it goes on for even a short period of time, it’s a problem for the economy. We’re monitoring it carefully,” spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters in Washington as longshore workers were locked out of their jobs Monday for the second time in four days.
Contract negotiations resumed in San Francisco on Monday afternoon. But the two sides adjourned after two hours, agreeing to meet Wednesday. The only movement in the impasse may have come when James Spinosa, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said for the first time he might be willing to accept federal mediation.
Seventy cargo ships were docked at ports from San Diego to Seattle waiting to be loaded or unloaded. Another 30 have dropped anchor outside the ports of Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach and other major West Coast ports as longshore workers were barred from doing their work.
Their employers, American and foreign flag shippers represented by San Francisco’s Pacific Maritime Association, allege that ILWU workers have engaged in a work slowdown that has reduced productivity by 54 percent at West Coast ports, which process some $300 billion in cargo annually. The union contract expired Sept. 1. ILWU officials have said they have not engaged in a work slowdown.
A lockout was ordered from Friday at 6 p.m. to Sunday at 8 a.m. Crews began working the Sunday morning shift but the PMA, believing slowdowns were again occurring, shut down the ports again and said later Sunday the terminals will reopen only when the union signs an extension of the current contract or a new contract.
Bush could intervene to force a return to work, but such an order could be politically difficult before the Nov. 5 election as Republicans are trying to woo the labor vote in several key states. Moreover, the administration was pressured heavily by members of Congress not to intervene because a task force may consider options if the labor negotiations worsened.