Judge May Be Asked To Reopen Ports

The ripple effect of the labor standoff between West Coast longshoremen and shippers has spread all the way to the White House, with President Bush taking steps to reopen the crippled ports to prevent a full-blown economic crisis.

The Bush administration is expected as early as Tuesday to ask a federal court in San Francisco to end the lockout at all 29 West Coast ports for 80 days, citing injury to the nation's health and safety, an administration official said.

That would mark the first presidential effort in a quarter century to end a work stoppage under the Taft-Hartley Act.

The court action is expected to follow a report by a presidential inquiry board formed Monday to measure the economic harm and detail the demands of both sides. Though the administration promised an unbiased examination, President Bush appears to have made up his mind that the dispute is hurting national security and the economy, and merits federal intervention.

If permitted to continue, the lockout "will imperil the national health and safety," wrote President Bush Monday, in his executive order establishing the board.

Businesses across the country complained that they were starting to feel squeezed by the shutdown and pressed the White House to step in to help end the stalemate, which some analysts have estimated was costing as much as $2 billion a day.

The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies and terminal operators, locked out 10,500 members of the longshoremen's union last week, claiming the dockworkers were engaging in a slowdown.

The longshoremen's contract expired July 1, although it had been extended several times before Labor Day. The sticking point in negotiations is whether jobs created by new technology will be unionized. The average full-time dockworker in the ILWU makes $80,000 a year. The most experienced foremen can earn $167,000.

Just hours after federally mediated talks in San Francisco collapsed between workers and management, President Bush intervened and appointed the inquiry board - a step rarely taken by presidents and the first such move in the case of a lockout.

The PMA Monday released details of a five-year contract offer worth more than $1 billion as part of an effort to make the dockworkers appear piggish.

Labor leaders in turn lambasted the shippers as "corporate terrorists" seeking to break the dockworkers' union so they can boost their profits by shifting more work to lower-paid employees.

The shippers say their latest offer would have protected jobs, provided modest raises and increased pension benefits 26 percent from the current $39,900 to $50,400 in 2006.

Had they accepted, the dockworkers would have been "the envy of the entire blue-collar work force," said Joseph Miniace, PMA president and chief executive officer.

Labor leaders contend the shippers are exaggerating the wages of the 10,500 dockworkers that would be covered by the contract.

"The package is one that is very divisive and does not address the needs of the industry," said James Spinosa, ILWU president.

Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said if an injunction is granted by the court, the ports could be reopened in one or two days.

"The country has been patient. We have been patient," she said. "But now ordinary Americans are being seriously harmed by this dispute."

The department also warned the lockout could hurt national security, because the armed forces and defense contractors rely on commercial ships that use West Coast ports.

Historically, cooling-off periods have failed to permanently end labor disputes.

Eleven coast-wide dock strikes have occurred since the Taft-Hartley Act allowing presidential intervention was passed in 1947. In all of those cases the president sought court orders after convening an inquiry board, according to the Labor Department. But in at least eight of those instances, the 80-day cooling-off period failed to resolve the disputes and the strikes resumed.

"Experience shows that this simply delays the settlement process," said Michael LeRoy, professor of labor and industrial relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "It does not end the dispute by any means. Typically what happens is the parties go back to their corners and stew."

But a cooling-off period would keep the ports open during the crucial Christmas season, in which retailers are relying on imported goods to stock their shelves. The trade-off for the Bush administration, LeRoy said, is that a mandatory cooling-off period could energize organized labor - traditionally a Democratic ally - just before midterm elections.

Jimmy Carter was the last president to seek to use Taft-Hartley to end a work stoppage in the coal industry in 1978. The court refused to order the 80-day cooling-off period but did order miners back to work under a temporary restraining order.

Mr. Bush's decision came on a day when a CBS-New York Times poll suggested two-thirds of Americans think he should be spending more time on the economy.

The number of cargo vessels stranded at West Coast docks or backing up at anchor points has risen to 200. Dozens more were still en route from Asia. Already, storage facilities at beef, pork and poultry processing facilities across the country are full - crammed with produce that can't be exported.