President George W. Bush signed an executive order Oct. 7 creating a federal board of inquiry that is a first step toward a Taft-Hartley Act federal injunction ordering employers and locked-out International Longshore and Warehouse Union members back to normal business operations at 29 major West Coast ports during an 80-day "cooling-off" period. The Bush administration has sided with the employer since early in the bargaining process—undermining the incentive for the employer to negotiate.
The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents the dockworkers’ employers, indefinitely locked out the 10,500 ILWU workers Sept. 29.
The board is expected to report to the president on Tuesday, Oct. 8, Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao said at a Monday press conference. The president is then expected to ask the federal courts to order the injunction. At the same Labor Department press conference, Labor Solicitor Eugene Scalia acknowledged this is the first time a president has taken such action while workers were not on strike but actually blocked by their employer from doing their jobs. The board is the first at all in nearly 24 years. Scalia previously represented the employer group as a private-sector lawyer. (Eugene Scalia's financial disclosure report to the U.S. Senate. PMA reference on last page. PDF 2.7 MB)
“The dockworkers want to work and open the docks—it is the employers who have locked these workers out of the ports and are responsible for the cargo that is piling up in the nation’s harbors,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka. “But the PMA has continued this lockout, and has been completely unwilling to meet the union halfway at the table, because it has known since the summer it had the Bush administration squarely in its corner.”
On Sunday night, the union accepted federal mediators’ suggestion that the dockworkers work under their expired contract for seven days, to be renewed on a rolling basis as mediation continued. While the ILWU agreed, the PMA refused, leading to today’s Bush administration action. “The parties had only been in mediation four days,” said Trumka, “not enough time for this process to succeed.”
While the PMA was brushing off the federal mediators Sunday night, the three members of the federal inquiry board appointed Monday by Bush—headed by former secretary of labor and former Tennessee U.S. Sen. Bill Brock (R)—already had arrived in the port areas.
“The Bush administration’s move today is nothing short of an attack on American workers’ freedom to be able to go to the negotiating table on an equal footing with America’s employers,” said Trumka. “And if every employer thinks the federal government will step in, why should they negotiate and let the natural bargaining process work? In fact, this administration has routinely abused its power to force federal intervention—first in the airlines, then in railroads and now in the private sector.”
Even when issued during strikes rather than lockouts, Taft-Hartley injunctions lack a record of success. Since the Taft-Hartley Act was passed in 1947, there have been 11 coast-wide dock strikes. In the case of eight injunctions, work stopped again when the 80 days of cooling off ended.
Sunday night, before negotiations broke down, the PMA had accepted the union’s proposal to end the lockout for shipments to Hawaii and Alaska and for military cargo. “We have offered this assistance up and down the coast to make sure that the interests of the public are protected,” ILWU President James Spinosa said. In addition, the union and the employer had reached a tentative agreement on the contentious issue of how new technology would be implemented into the dock work. But then the employer retracted the offer, which caused the breakdown of talks.
The PMA, which represents shipping lines and sea terminal operators, implemented the lockout on Sept. 29 although the ILWU has made broad contract proposals for the new computer technology that employers have long called their top priority. The dockworkers—whose contract expired July 1—are willing to accept limited short-term job losses as a result of technology-induced efficiency. In exchange, consistent with a 40-year-old understanding, the union wants members to continue doing all the jobs they currently perform, as well as the new jobs it expects technology will create in the future. But the PMA refuses to commit that ILWU workers will perform the remaining or new jobs.
While the union and the PMA have reached an agreement that health care benefits will remain intact with some slight improvements, there is no similar understanding that the retirement age should be reduced from 62 to 59, as the union has asked to protect members likely to lose jobs because of technology. PMA also has failed to agree to increase the security of containers, both full and empty, that enter the United States through the ports. “We feel the empty containers should have seals on them that are checked, but the employers are balking at this,” said ILWU negotiator Larry Hansen.
The ILWU said the PMA has not negotiated in good faith because the PMA expects the Bush administration to intervene. Months ago, a PMA representative acknowledged the Bush administration has tried to influence negotiations. “I can confirm that we have been contacted by the administration,” said Jack Suite, PMA’s director of contract administration. “They’ve made it very plain that they want a settlement without any disruption.” At this time, the Bush administration appears to have backed off from threats to bring federal troops into the ports, thanks to the ILWU and the union movement shining a spotlight on a grave interference with the collective bargaining process.
Said Hansen, “There has been a gun to our heads for five months. Because [PMA President and CEO Joseph] Miniace has the Bush administration behind him, Miniace has postured and laughed at us in negotiations. We believe that Miniace made sure that talks would break down so that Bush can go forward with a Taft-Hartley injunction.”
The global and U.S. union movement continue to line up support for the West Coast dockworkers.
The PMA’s major port clients, including shoe companies and major retailers like Crate & Barrel, Wal-Mart and others, also have bolstered the PMA’s intransigence.
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