Port Debate Continues
The Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), which represents shippers in the current conflict at West Coast ports, is charging that port workers have been staging a work slowdown since the ports were reopened under court order by President Bush in early October. PMA filed a letter with the U.S. Justice Department that says productivity has dropped by a third since the ports reopened. The Internaional Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has called the slowdown allegations “baseless.” The PMA and ILWU have been negotiating since July 1 when the ILWU’s contract expired. Talks broke down in late September and the ports were closed for nearly two weeks until the president reopened them under the Taft-Hartley Act, which gives negotiators an 80-day “cooling off” period.
