SAN FRANCISCO — Cargo ships waited offshore today and factory owners worried about parts shortages as port operators from Seattle to San Diego shut down 29 West Coast ports in a dispute with the longshoremen's union.þþAfter five months of contentious negotiations over a new contract, the operators said they were compelled to shut the ports indefinitely because of what they said was a longshoremen's slowdown that was paralyzing operations. þþþThe union called the shutdown an unjust lockout of 10,500 longshoremen.þþEconomists and political leaders voiced fears that a long shutdown of the ports, which handle $300 billion in cargo a year, could hurt a broad swath of businesses. Retailers complained that the shutdown would make it hard to stock shelves for the holiday season, auto dealers said they might soon run out of some popular Japanese cars, and farmers said fresh produce meant for export would soon rot.þþÿObviously, this is a major economic disaster for U.S. importers and exporters that represent a substantial portion of the nation's economy,ÿ said Robin Lanier, executive director of the West Coast Waterfront Coalition, a group that includes Wal-Mart, Kmart, Toyota and dozens of other major importers. ÿThis shutdown is having an immediate impact. We are at the brink of an assembly line shutdown in various places.ÿþþThe West Coast ports handle about half the nation's imports and exports. þþThe Bush administration said it was monitoring the shutdown, which some economists say will cost the economy $1 billion a day for the first five days, with the cost rising exponentially if it lasts several weeks. þþÿIf it goes on for even a short period of time, it's a problem for the economy,ÿ said Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman. ÿWe're monitoring it carefully.ÿþþThe longshoremen's union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, denounced the employers' group for closing the ports, insisting that management was putting the nation's economy at risk. But the Pacific Maritime Association, a group of shipping lines and port operators, said the longshoremen had been staging a slow-motion strike and were to blame for hurting the ports and the economy.þþAt a news conference at union headquarters here, James Spinosa, the union's president, acknowledged that longshoremen had slowed operations by refusing to work overtime, by not assigning experienced workers to huge cranes and by seizing on safety issues to slow their normal rate of work. He said the union was being more cautious about safety because five longshoremen died on the job over the past year. þþIn Portland and Oakland, the employers' association said, crane operators over the last few days were loading and unloading less than half the 30 large metal cargo containers that they normally unload per hour.þþJoseph Miniace, president of the employers' association, said it would not reopen the ports until the union agreed to resume work normally and extend its contract. The union's three-year contract expired on July 1, but the union repeatedly agreed to temporary extensions until Labor Day weekend when it refused further extensions.þþThe employers have agreed to meet with federal mediators this Thursday, but union officials said they were not ready to meet with a mediator. The two sides resumed negotiations for a short time today, evidently making little progress, and said they would meet again on Wednesday.þþMr. Spinosa said the longshoremen would not extend the contract until management met the union halfway on the central issue in the negotiations — management's desire to use new technologies. þþÿThe I.L.W.U. will not be intimidated,ÿ Mr. Spinosa said. ÿWe will not move into a contract that is not desirable for our workforce.ÿþþAmong the ports, Portland specializes in importing cars from Asia and exporting grain from the Midwest. Seattle imports a range of goods that go to the Midwest and elsewhere in the country.þþLos Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's two busiest ports, handle a wide range of cargo, with much of their imports sold in the West and much of their exports produced in the region.þþIndustry officials said it would be difficult to divert the West Coast-bound ships to Atlantic or Gulf Coast ports because Pacific cargo ships were generally too large to go through the Panama Canal.þþAmerican exporters said the shutdown could be disastrous. Charlie Woo, the president of Mega Toys, which is based in Los Angeles, said: ÿI got a lot of stuff stuck on a boat right now. In terms of Christmas delivery, this is really the two-minute warning. This is crunch time.ÿþþAndrea Greco, vice president of supply for Fila USA, the footwear company, voiced concern that a shutdown would delay shipments until too late in the holiday season. ÿPast a certain date, they really don't want to take the product,ÿ Ms. Greco said.þþOff the port of Long Beach, at least 20 hulking cargo ships waited silently, while inside the harbor, scores of cranes, each at least 10 stories high, stood idle.þþMany longshoremen — whose pay runs from $80,000 to $158,000 a year — voiced anger and frustration that management had shut the ports. Joseph Hanson, a longshoreman for 35 years, said: ÿWe've been working without a contract for three months. We've been working in good faith. They're talking about good faith. There ain't no good faith.ÿþþManagement wants to introduce new technologies to speed cargo-handling, like using optical scanners to register the cargo that truck drivers carry into the ports. Even though the employers have promised job security to the longshoremen, the union has balked at accepting such new technologies because it worries that some jobs will become nonunion. þþBut management officials said the union's rejection of new technologies would hurt the ports' expansion. ÿOn the issue of technology, the union cannot put its head in the sand,ÿ Tom Edwards, Northern California director of the maritime association, said at a news conference at a San Francisco hotel. ÿThe lack of technology is already creating severe bottlenecks at the ports, and there's no chance that we will be able to accommodate the expected trade growth from Asia without it. The top ports in Asia and in Europe are at least a decade ahead of us.ÿþþThe last major work stoppage at the West Coast ports was a 134-day strike in 1971. þþIn the last two rounds of negotiations, in 1996 and in 1999, management largely bowed to the union's demands after the longshoremen refused to work overtime and slowed down operations in other ways. Management officials said that the port operators and shipping lines decided not to let themselves be pushed around this time. þþMr. Miniace said slowdowns are more disruptive than a full-scale strike because they throw off scheduling for arriving ships, for trucks that pick up and deliver cargo and for factories that rely on just-in-time arrival of components for production.þþCalling the employers' move ÿa defensive shutdown,ÿ Mr. Edwards said, ÿWhen you reduce production in all the West Coast ports by 50 percent, that's a strike, and they're trying to get paid for it when they can.ÿ þþLast summer, Bush administration officials said they were thinking of ordering an 80-day cooling off period in the event of a work stoppage — the first time such a Taft-Hartley order would be used since a 1978 coal strike. Union officials accused the administration of tilting toward management, but in recent weeks the administration has soft-pedaled talk of a cooling-off period.þþOf all the states, Hawaii is likely to be hurt most by a prolonged shutdown because it imports more than 90 percent of its goods. þþ
Source: NY Times
