FOR MONTHS now, 29 ports up and down the West Coast have not been operating at full capacity. Ongoing labor negotiations that have already resulted in frequent work slowdowns took a turn for the worse last week as port operations ground to a halt over the holiday weekend. Yet the national economy depends too much on these key entry points to allow the discord behind these disruptions to continue much longer. Both sides need to find creative ways to compromise. If they don’t, the Obama administration shouldn’t hesitate to leave all options on the table — including employing federal laws to force the ports to remain open.
The labor dispute stems from contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents 20,000 West Coast dockworkers, and the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the ports’ managers. The previous contract expired last June, and both parties have reportedly agreed to much of what will be in the new contract. Ironically, the one sticking point appears to be new rules governing arbitration in labor disputes.
Neither side looks ready to give in — but that may be due to the mudslinging both parties have stooped to in recent months. Management has accused the union of using slowdown tactics to hold up business, such as withholding crane operators necessary to move containers off of ships. The union disagrees, saying that crane operators are being held back for safety reasons after several accidents. They also say management is using the specter of a shutdown to gain leverage in negotiations.
Unfortunately, due to the size of the ports involved, this ugliness — as far away as it seems — has ramifications even in Boston. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach alone handle 40 percent of all incoming container cargo to the United States, adding up to $1 billion worth of goods that pass through these two ports every day. During the work stoppage last weekend, 32 container ships idled off Los Angeles’ waterfront. When the West Coast ports shut down, supply chains across the country suffer.
President Obama has dispatched his labor secretary, Tom Perez, to San Francisco to mediate, although it is unclear what Perez can accomplish that federal negotiators already on the ground can’t. That said, sending Perez shows both sides that the White House is invested in a positive outcome and will hopefully speed talks along. Obama also needs to make clear that he will do everything in his power to keep the ports open — including using the Taft-Hartley Act, which outlaws certain types of strikes, to forcibly open the ports in the event of another shutdown.
Taking this extreme step would inevitably anger Democrats’ union allies. But the cost of the dispute have already been too high: Workers in the Midwest suffer when carmaker Honda has to slow production at its US plants because parts can’t get through the ports fast enough, as was announced last week. The same goes for farmers, whose produce is rotting before it can be loaded onto ships: trade in American citrus fruits to Asia is already estimated to be down 25 percent.
Also at risk? The future of the dockworkers themselves. The longer negotiations go on, the more impatient shipping firms are getting at the delay. Hanjin, South Korea’s largest shipping company, announced Tuesday that it was pulling out of the Port of Portland after one of its ships sat waiting to be serviced for four days last weekend. Hanjin accounts for 78 percent of business at that port.
Neither party in this messy affair will ultimately end up without some egg on its face. But the hard decisions — over pay, health care, pensions, and more — have been made. Now is the time for the fighting to end, before even more economic productivity is lost.