Obama Dispatches Labor Chief to Aid West Coast Port Talks
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union went back to work on Feb. 17 at West Coast ports, as Labor Secretary Tom Perez continued to push for a deal between the ILWU and its employers, the Pacific Maritime Association. President Barack Obama sent Labor Secretary Tom Perez to intervene personally in the ongoing dispute over contract negotiations, a White House spokesman said on Feb. 14, according to media outlets (here). The PMA shut down work from Feb. 14-16 for the second straight weekend (see 1502120049).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
The union contract expired at the end of June 2014, and since then the two sides have often traded barbs over negotiations for a new contract. A bipartisan group of House lawmakers called on the administration in recent days to end the dispute in the event of a strike or lockout (here). Despite industry and lawmaker warnings about the economic damage the slowdown is causing, the White House has rejected calls to invoke presidential powers under the Taft-Hartley Act to break the impasse (see 1502120017).
Manufacturers, retailers, agricultural producers and other traders are continuing to suffer from the gridlock at the ports, said National Retail Federation trade expert Jonathan Gold, one of the loudest critics of the contract dispute, on Feb. 16. “It’s a shame it came down to this [and] we had to get the administration involved,” Gold said on Fox Business (here). “We hope we can get a final deal out of this.” Industry representatives expressed that same concern before Congress on Feb. 10 (see 1502110017). Industry representatives told Congress in recent days they are now considering shipping product on air freight or cutting export operations (see 1502110017).