NEW YORK — Workers at 29 West Coast ports could be back on the job as early as today after President Bush (news – web sites) stepped in and a federal court ordered an end to a crippling lockout by port operators, reported USA Today.
Even so, it could be 10 weeks before backlogged food, manufacturing parts and household goods reach their destinations and shipping returns to normal.
The costs of the 10-day port shutdown have continued to mount, threatening to harm an already-tepid economic recovery and looming even larger as the holiday shopping season approaches. The stoppage has cost the economy an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion a day.
Bush asked a federal court Tuesday for an injunction to end the lockout, making him the first president in a quarter-century to intervene in a labor dispute under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act. Unions consider the act an anti-worker method of resolving such disputes.
The injunction triggers an 80-day cooling-off period for the union and employers to work out differences.
A last-ditch effort to avoid legal action failed after port managers refused to join the dockworkers in agreeing to a 30-day contract extension that would have let workers return to the job.
The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the ports, said the extension wouldn’t have prevented dockworkers from staging a work slowdown. Ports imposed the lockout Sept. 29 after accusing workers of a slowdown.
Getting truckers and rail cars to the docks to unload ships as well as accepting more ship cargo will create a bottleneck of activity and likely result in eight to 10 weeks of delays before shipping returns to normal, maritime officials say.
Such a delay could have devastating effects on retailers, who already are predicting a disappointing holiday season. Those months represent 40% of annual sales.
”Even if the ports are reopened today . . . holiday merchandise may arrive on our shelves on Dec. 26, just in time to be marked down,” says Kathryn Lavriha of the International Mass Retail Association.
Nissan North America predicts sales will be down 10% to 15% because of delivery delays. Mitsubishi Motors America says it will stop production today at its plant in Normal, Ill., because it doesn’t have enough engines and transmissions.
The U.S. Meat Export Federation says its members are losing $9 million a day.