SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal judge overseeing the labor dispute at West Coast ports is discouraging dockworkers and shipping companies from rushing to court seeking sanctions against the other side.þþ``I hope you won't do that without it being clearly warranted,'' U.S. District Judge William Alsup said during a short status hearing Thursday.þþAlsup has overseen a federal order to reopen 29 major Pacific ports that were closed this fall during a bitter battle between the dockworkers' union and the association that represents shipping lines and port terminal operators.þþThe Pacific Maritime Association had locked out members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union for 10 days when President Bush invoked a little-used law to open the docks Oct. 9.þþA federal mediator is seeking to resolve the contract dispute that led to the lockout.þþAlsup could sanction either side if he determines it's violating his order to resume work at a ``normal pace.''þþJustice Department lawyer Mark Quinlivan told the court that dockworkers and shipping companies share the blame for a productivity drop, but neither party is culpable enough to be sanctioned.þþ``There has been a considerable drop in productivity,'' Quinlivan said, adding that there was progress by both sides toward thinning out the backlog.þþHe told Alsup the government would continue monitoring the dispute, in which shipping association officials claim that the 10,500-member union orchestrated a work slowdown.þþClifford Sethness, the shipping lines' attorney, told the court that the maritime association would continue to monitor worker productivity. He left open the option that he would ask Alsup to hold the union in contempt.þþThe union's lawyer, Richard Zuckerman, vehemently denied claims of a slowdown and said the shipping lines deliberately mismanaged cargo. The lockout, he said, left so much cargo on the docks that containers have clogged the ports and made it difficult to get goods to market.þþAlsup said either side could return to seek sanctions before his oversight role expires Dec. 27. After that day, neither Alsup nor the government has any power to stop a new lockout by the docks or a strike by the union.þþThe union says retirement benefits must be sweetened in exchange for the introduction of computerized cargo tracking systems, which will make dockside work more efficient but cost around 400 union jobs in the short term.þþ
Source: NY Times
