LOS ANGELES — Every port on the West Coast was idled today by a bitter, escalating contract feud between shipping companies and dockworkers that could have enormous effects on the national economy, the Washington Post reported.
The shutdown forced nearly 11,000 dockworkers off their jobs for the second time in recent days and paralyzed 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle during their busiest time of the year. The ports handle about $1 billion in cargo a day and are among the largest in the country.
As angry dockworkers picketed outside port gates here and elsewhere today, scores of cargo ships arriving all along the West Coast from Asia were stranded outside harbors, filled with goods for factories and businesses across the country. Some rail lines were left without deliveries, and hundreds of truckers were stuck parked outside ports with empty rigs.
White House officials said they were closely monitoring the labor dispute and urged both sides to accept the help of federal mediators, with a meeting tentatively scheduled Thursday in Washington. “We are concerned about the effect on the economy,” said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan.
Shipping companies and port operators are accusing the longshoremen, whose labor contract expired July 1, of orchestrating costly and disruptive work slowdowns. The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping lines and port operators, imposed a temporary lockout on Saturday, then closed all terminals Sunday evening only a few hours after they had reopened, saying dockworkers were again engaging in tactics that were creating chaos on the waterfront.
The association has vowed to keep all the West Coast ports closed until the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents dockworkers, either agrees to extend its old labor contract or sign a new one.
Joseph Miniace, the association’s president, said that he had hoped normal operations would resume at the ports after the first lockout. “Unfortunately, the union had other plans,” he said. “Experienced crane-drivers were nowhere to be found. . . . Trucks and forklifts were driven so slowly that a child could walk more quickly.” Miniace called the actions a “strike with pay” being waged to pressure shipping officials into bowing to union contract demands.
But union leaders in West Coast ports scoffed at those charges and called the lockout a dangerous step to intimidate workers and one that will harm the already weakened national economy.
“That’s a lie, that’s an outright lie,” said Ramon Ponce de Leon Jr., president of the union’s local at the Port of Los Angeles. “We’re ready to go to work. We’re not slowing down.”
Union leaders said that in recent days they have ordered dockworkers to follow health and safety rules to the letter, because they do not want members injured while they are without the safeguards of a contract.
The neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, normally the busiest in the nation, were eerily quiet today. Giant cranes that lift cargo containers from docked ships did not move. Containers filled with an array of merchandise for the upcoming holiday shopping season — cameras, microwaves, clothing — were not opened. Dozens of longshoremen carrying signs that said “Fight Terrorism, Not American Workers” walked in solemn circles outside padlocked fences at the port in what has become a round-the-clock picket. Across the street, in a sprawling parking lot jammed with idle 18-wheelers, truckers waited for word of when work at the docks might resume.
“We love our jobs,” said one middle-aged dockworker walking the picket line, who declined to give her name. “We don’t want to strike.”
California Gov. Gray Davis (D) urged both sides in the dispute to return immediately to the bargaining table and warned that the consequences of an extended lockout at ports could be severe.
“We need this situation resolved and we need both parties to understand that many people are being hurt by this,” Davis said. “Our economy is dependent on the free flow of goods. And when all of that stops, it has a tremendous effect on people’s ability to continue their jobs and small businesses to continue to be productive.”
The threat of a lockout or a strike has been looming at West Coast ports for weeks. Contract talks between the union and shipping officials are stalled over pay and the role of new technology at the ports, which if implemented could eliminate some dockworker jobs. Union leaders say they support the introduction of new technology, even if it costs some jobs. But they want any jobs created by technological advances to be under the union’s jurisdiction.
Some business groups say the lockouts are already beginning to hurt the economy in a variety of ways. Most of the ships that bring cargo to West Coast ports cannot be diverted. And manufacturers and retailers around the country cannot wait much longer for their goods to arrive.
“The ships stacking outside harbors are filled with things that factories and business badly need,” said Robin Lanier, the executive director of the West Coast Waterfront Coalition, which represents manufacturers and retailers. “Companies making cars, electronics, all kinds of stuff, are going to run out of parts. And when they run out of parts, they can’t run assembly lines and will have to send workers home. We’re not far away from that happening all over the country, and our economy can’t afford it right now.”