Obama to Intervene in West Coast Ports Strike
U.S. President Barack Obama has asked his labor secretary, Tom Perez, to travel to California in order to help spur an agreement in talks between port operators and the dockworkers’ union that have led to closed ports along the US west coast, says White House sources.
"The negotiations over the functioning of the West Coast Ports have been taking place for months with the Administration urging the parties to resolve their differences," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement.
"Out of concern for the economic consequences of further delay, the President has directed his Secretary of Labor Tom Perez travel to California to meet with the parties to urge them to resolve their dispute quickly at the bargaining table."
Perez has been in contact with the parties and will keep Obama updated, Schultz said.
The move by the Obama administration came after shippers vowed to prevent the loading and unloading of freight through Monday from container ships at the 29 ports, barring a settlement in talks with the dockworkers' union.
Negotiators for the union representing 20,000 dockworkers at 29 ports and management’s bargaining agent, the Pacific Maritime Association, have agreed to a federal mediator’s request for a 48-hour news blackout after a bargaining session on Thursday, which was the parties’ first face-to-face meeting in nearly a week.
The Pacific Maritime Association has said the talks hit a new snag over a demand by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union for changes in the system of binding arbitration of contract disputes.
