WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is determined to keep cargo moving through West Coast ports by blocking a work slowdown or strike or even calling on U.S. troops should union contract negotiations break down.þþLabor Department officials said Monday those are among the options the administration is considering to prevent a potential economic crisis. The 10,500 workers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have been working without a new contract since July 1.þþ``But there's a long way between pulling the trigger on anything versus laying out your options,'' said a Labor Department official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity.þþThe union's contract with the Pacific Maritime Association controls the flow of about $260 billion annually in cargo through America's 29 major West Coast ports.þþThe Bush administration has convened a special task force with officials from the Commerce, Labor, Transportation departments and the office of Homeland Security, and has been exploring federal intervention, monitoring talks and meeting with both sides, the Labor Department officials said.þþThe most likely option is for President Bush to declare a national economic emergency, forcing a strike delay for 80 days. The last time such authority was invoked under the Taft-Hartley Act was 1978, when President Carter unsuccessfully tried to end a national coal strike.þþSo far, there's been little progress at the bargaining table on a new agreement. Technology has been a major focus of negotiations. Pacific Rim trade is projected to double in the next decade, and shipping lines complain West Coast ports won't be able to keep up unless they upgrade to more closely match their more automated Asian peers.þþ``The government has no business in these negotiations,'' said union spokesman Steve Stallone. ``We never even got a chance to begin negotiating before they started interfering. This is why negotiations are completely deadlocked.''þþStallone said a Labor Department lawyer, in meetings with union negotiators, also has threatened to run the ports with Navy personnel or back legislation that would weaken the union's ability to strike, should a slowdown or walkout occur.þþ``The Department of Labor is supposed to represent workers in the administration,'' Stallone said. ``But what we have is a Department of Labor whose attorney wants to overthrow the National Labor Relations Act, the very law he's supposed to be enforcing.''þþBut the talk of intervention by the Bush administration shouldn't come as a surprise. Bush has aggressively intervened in other union strikes, but through presidential powers under a different labor law reserved for airline and railroad disputes.þþLast December, he signed an executive order one day before a strike deadline, imposing a ``cooling-off'' period between United Airlines and its mechanics. Both sides later accepted a settlement proposed by the presidential emergency board.þþIn March 2001, Bush intervened four days before Northwest Airline mechanics' strike deadline, barring a walk out. An agreement was later reached. At American Airlines, just hours before Bush planned to step in and block a strike by flight attendants in June 2001, both sides reached an agreement.þ
Source: NY Times
