Labor Secretary Tom Perez flew to San Francisco on Monday to urge a resolution of the dispute over stalled contract negotiations at West Coast ports,
after the situation intensified over the weekend:
Starting Saturday, companies locked out workers who would load or unload ships, saying they would not pay weekend or holiday wage premiums to crews they accuse of intentionally slowing work to gain bargaining leverage. As a result, cranes that would otherwise be moving containers onto dockside yards were raised up, stationary and eerily quiet on normally bustling waterfronts.
It was a broadening of a partial lockout that began in January, when the maritime association stopped calling night crews to load and unload ships, saying smaller crews would instead focus on moving onto trucks and trains containers that already had been unloaded onto cargo-choked dockside yards.
The union denies charges of a slowdown, pointing to factors controlled by management. But in this type of blame-casting, management can always put a lot more public relations oomph behind its version of the story. So remember, when the word "lockout" applies, you're talking about a management decision made to pressure workers.
Around 20,000 workers at 29 ports have been working without a contract since July, and federal mediators have been involved since January, but the situation obviously isn't improving. Dozens of cargo ships are waiting to be unloaded outside the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, for instance. A full shutdown of the ports could be incredibly expensive, affecting the entire supply chain.