WASHINGTON, D.C. — This is the first time in the history of the United States that a President has let an employer lock out workers in an extended quest to undermine the workers’ union — creating a phony crisis — and then reward that employer’s action with government intervention.
It is a tragedy with historic ramifications.
And it is not only a tragedy but an outrage that the decision by the White House to intervene came even though the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which negotiates for west coast shippers and port terminal operators, had just rejected the Bush Administration’s call to end their lock out of dockworkers at the port and extend the workers’ contract for 30 days while bargaining continues — in lieu of a Taft-Hartley injunction. The dockworkers and their union had agreed to the Bush Administration’s request for a contract extension today.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) members have wanted to work all along — they never went on strike — and they have asked to unload the ships while they ironed out their differences with their employer.
Early in the process, the Bush Administration threatened to use the military to operate the ports and threatened to invoke Taft-Hartley — thus strengthening the employers’ hand in bargaining and giving the Pacific Maritime Association little incentive to bargain in good faith.
The basic issue is neither wages nor benefits. Dockworkers make a good living. The issue is making sure that those jobs remain good jobs — union jobs that support families and are good for the community. Dockworkers agreed to technology that would increase productivity, and the ILWU has asked that any new jobs created have the protection of an ILWU contract so that the workers have a voice on the job through their union. But the PMA has steadfastly refused.
The two parties’ issues are bridgeable. But it will take fair and equal discussion — hopefully, the Bush’s early intervention in the process has not poisoned the waters too much for the parties to be able to reach a compromise.