Should the White House intervene in the West Coast port dispute?

News that terminal operators at busy ports on the West Coast will suspend the unloading and loading of ships for four days over the President’s Day weekend has prompted the National Retail Federation (NRF) to call on the Obama administration to step in and bring the parties together to negotiate a deal.

The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents port employers in the negotiations, announced yesterday that it would suspend work in an apparent attempt to punish workers who would typically earn 50 percent or more over their normal wages. The PMA also closed ports last weekend.

"Last week, PMA made a comprehensive contract offer designed to bring these talks to conclusion," said PMA spokesperson Wade Gates, in a statement. "The ILWU responded with demands they knew we could not meet, and continued slowdowns that will soon bring West Coast ports to gridlock. What they’re doing amounts to a strike with pay, and we will reduce the extent to which we pay premium rates for such a strike."

"This is an effort by the employers to put economic pressure on our members and to gain leverage in contract talks," said Robert McEllrath, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), in a statement. "The Union is standing by ready to negotiate, as we have been for the past several days."

"The slowdowns need to end. The brinkmanship needs to stop," said Jonathan Gold, vice president for supply chain at NRF, in a statement. "The ILWU and PMA are delaying cargo and merchandise in the short-term while harming the competitiveness of the West Coast ports in the long-term. This stalemate is hurting American businesses, their employees and consumers."

"It’s time for the White House to immediately engage in this critically-important economic priority and force the two sides to remain at the negotiating table until a deal is done," said Mr. Gold. "The time for monitoring has passed. The time for action has come."

BrainTrust

Discussion Questions

Do you agree with the NRF that the White House should intervene and force the Pacific Maritime Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union to remain at the negotiating table until the two sides reach agreement on a labor deal?

Poll

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W. Frank Dell II, CMC
W. Frank Dell II, CMC
9 years ago

There is simply no reason for the White House to get involved with a local labor issue. Under this administration we know the outcome and it will have long term implications. The end result will be a reduction in West Coast volume and jobs. Every retailer importing product knows there are always delays. This is built into the cost structure for importing. If the issue is not resolved in a reasonable time period, retailers should change their port of entry.

Dan Raftery
Dan Raftery
9 years ago

Absolutely. This has been going on for months. The NRF letter should not have been necessary. Where have the President’s economic advisers been for the last few months? Why did no one connect the dots: December retail sales came in below expectations, importers couldn’t get goods to stores since October, China exports below projections—duh!

And the fresh food exporters have been screaming for months too. Food is rotting in warehouses and now in California fields. And there’s more to come. China shippers can’t find containers and are advising against even trying to export until April. The dominoes are falling. Wake up the White House, please.

Roger Saunders
Roger Saunders
9 years ago

Should the White House intervene?—Yes.

Will they? No, they’ll use a different social science. Instead of considering economics, they’ll play politics.

Warren Thayer
Warren Thayer
9 years ago

The right and the left will both scream bloody murder for their own reasons, but yes, the White House should intervene on behalf of the non-lunatics (hey, remember us?) who are simply trying to make a living and do business. This has gone on way, way too long, and greed on both sides is hurting the mainstream.

Tim Moerke
Tim Moerke
9 years ago

Whether or not there is intervention, and whatever the outcome is, this is an excellent time for U.S. retailers to reconsider their over-dependence on imports rather than domestically-sourced products. Long supply chains are very vulnerable to disruption in many forms—port shutdowns, natural disasters, war, you name it. Not that there can’t be transportation issues with products made within the U.S. as well, but there is much more flexibility.

Ed Rosenbaum
Ed Rosenbaum
9 years ago

So let me see if I have this right: Two children are fighting over whose ball it is and they want the parents to intervene. The parents give the ball to one and the other is angry telling everyone how mean and stupid the parent is. No, the White House should not intervene. These are adults (I think). They need to act as such and stop debating through the media.

Mel Kleiman
Mel Kleiman
9 years ago

Why would the White House not want to get involved? They want to be involved in everything else and they know if we would let them they can fix all of the problems we have in this country.

They will most likely avoid this one because this is something they need to be involved in and at least get the different sides talking and declare a 90-day return to work.

Gordon Arnold
Gordon Arnold
9 years ago

As we speak there is over 400 billion dollars of product sitting in containers on over 35 ships off of our Pacific coast. The average large backlog is about nine ships. The full retail value of the product is value-estimated to be 1.2 trillion dollars. January retail spending missed last year by almost one percent or slightly less than two times the projected losses. Now we are looking for help from a man that needs help calculating his golf handicap numbers even with the millions of dollars a month we spend on advisers for him. Meanwhile the product will arrive as closeouts with landed losses in the billions of dollars. Hollywood couldn’t script a better reality horror story.

Joellen Wheeler
Joellen Wheeler
9 years ago

Absolutely, these people are holding the U.S. economy hostage. This is the problem with unions.

Craig Sundstrom
Craig Sundstrom
9 years ago

This seems our first question in quite a while in which the responses are phrased in mostly ideological terms. I won’t “take sides” either, other than to ask those opposing intervention—including the quaint notion that a stoppage that directly affects imports/exports in half the country (and implicitly everywhere) is “a local labor issue—exactly how long is a “reasonable time” for a resolution—it’s been going on for months, and how that (seemingly spontaneous) resolution will come about?

Ralph Jacobson
Ralph Jacobson
9 years ago

Living near one of the largest deep-water ports on the West Coast has taught me, among other things, that the volume of cargo this great country imports is unimaginable. These disputes need to be settled sensibly for all parties, as much as possible. Getting the government involved, however, is always a challenge. If there is a defined plan for the administration to execute in the negotiations, then that’s a good thing.