BOARD OF INQUIRY TO REPORT TODAY ON U.S. WEST COAST LABOR DISPUTE
As U.S. West Coast ports remained closed a 10th straight day, President Bush on Monday signed an executive order creating a board of inquiry to assess and report on the dispute between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore & Warehouse Union.
Mediation talks between the PMA, which represents port employers, and the ILWU broke down Sunday night and Peter Hurtgen, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, suspended negotiations with no resolution in sight.
President Bush's executive order is a first step in the authority granted him under the Taft-Hartley Act in cases where work stoppages imperil national health and safety.
The board of inquiry is expected to report to president Bush today, at which time the president may direct the attorney general to seek an injunction to end the work stoppage.
The board is to 'inquire into the issues involved in the dispute' and to ascertain the 'facts with respect to 'the dispute's) causes and circumstances,' according to the Taft-Hartley Act.
If an injunction is issued, the PMA and ILWU enter an 80-day cooling off period, in which they are required to resume 'normal operations,' and must work with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to resolve the dispute.
However, while the West Coast terminals 'could be open within a day' of the injunction, Joe Miniace, PMA president and chief executive officer, said 'it could take six weeks to process all of the containers in our backlog, those already in the terminals and those coming from waiting ships.'
West Coast ports handle some $300 billion in cargo a year. Estimates of the impact of the 10-day lockout have ranged for $1 billion to $2 billion a day. At least one auto plant has reportedly closed because of the port lockout and more than 100 farm and agriculture, retail, trade and transportation and other industry organizations have called for Bush to bring an end to the lockout.
'There have been 11 coast-wide strikes or shutdowns under the Taft-Hartley Act,' said Elaine L. Chao, Secretary of Labor. 'In 11 out of 11 times, the president has convened a board of inquiry.'
Former Tennessee Senator Bill Brock will chair the three-member board of inquiry. He is a former U.S. Secretary of labor and U.S. Trade Representative.
Also serving on the board are Patrick Hardin, a professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law, and Dennis Nolan, a professor of the University of South Carolina School of Law.