The World of Work
Bush backs dock bosses
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The president uses a 1947 anti- labor law against West Coast longshore workers fighting to preserve hard-won jobs and benefits
By GREGORY N. HEIRES
By intervening in a West Coast labor dispute,
the Bush administration is supporting corporate plans to break the
power of the progressive longshore workers union.
President George W. Bush invoked the anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act
in October to end a labor lockout by management at 29 ports on the
West Coast.
The court injunction obtained by the administration in October imposed
an 80-day "cooling off" period, supposedly to allow the
International
Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime
Association (PMA) employers' group to negotiate a new contract.
But the result might be to force a raw deal down the throats of
the 10,500 dock workers.
"This is the first time in the history of the United States
that a president has let an employer lock out workers to undermine
the workers' union—creating a phony crisis—and then reward
the employer with government intervention," said Richard Trumka,
AFL-CIO
secretary-treasurer. "It is a tragedy with historic ramifications."
The seldom-implemented cooling-off provision was intended to be
used when a strike creates a national emergency. But this time,
the lockout gave the administration an excuse to intervene for management
in a bitter contract dispute.
In the fall, contract talks broke off over the employers' proposal
to introduce labor-saving technology and contract out work to non-union
workers.
Phony crisis
The PMA shut down the ports after claiming that the union workers
were staging a slowdown—a charge denied by the union.
The lockout caused the "phony crisis" Mr. Trumka referred
to: With businesses dependent on the ports losing an estimated $1
billion a day, corporate lobbyists pressed on the administration
to intervene.
Businesses such as The Gap, Best Buy, Talbots, Wal-Mart and Target
Stores pushed for the injunction because they feared Christmas sales
would be hurt by the labor dispute.
On Oct. 8, just seven hours before seeking the court order to open
the ports, the Bush administration met with lobbyists representing
50 companies and interest groups to discuss the Taft-Hartley Act.
Four days earlier, at a meeting the National Association of Manufacturers
requested, a White House official met with representatives of 25
companies who spoke ominously about how the continuation of the
lockout would damage the economy.
Months before that, employer groups had begun lobbying the administration
to undercut the power of the ILWU, whose workers are strategically
located to disrupt international trade. A coalition of shipping
companies and corporations like Wal-Mart, 3M and Toyota urged the
administration to play hardball with the union. The administration
responded with a task force, which explored:
-
covering the ILWU under the Railway Labor Act, which gives the president even greater power than Taft-Hartley to intervene in strikes
-
imposing the 80-day "cooling off" period
- using the U.S. Navy to do the cargo work and using the National Guard to patrol the docks.
Military threat
Before Bush sought the injunction, Homeland Security Director Tom
Ridge and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao warned the union that the
administration was prepared to prevent a strike. And the administration
also indicated its willingness to use federal troops to keep
the ports open.
The ILWU contract expired in July. The essence of the dispute is
over the employers' desire to introduce new technologies, such as
electronic cargo-tracking and optical scanners to register the goods
that truck drivers bring into the ports.
The ILWU is willing to adopt the new technology as long as the jobs
of 600 clerical workers are protected and any new workers are represented
by the union.
For the last 40 years, the union has accepted new labor-saving technology
and taken in all new types of workers. In the 1960s, the ILWU agreed
to permit the introduction of labor-saving container shipping technology.
That led to a decline in the number of longshore workers from 100,000
to somewhat over 10,000 a day. The union members, whose current
pay ranges from $80,000 to $150,000, shared in the productivity
gains.
But this time, management rejected union jurisdiction for the new
workers, posing the threat of eliminating the union as new skills
replace old.
The Bush administration aims to break a union that has raised exploited,
impoverished "wharf rats" into proud middle-class workers
with good jobs and benefits. But the ILWU's history of fighting
back hard and well tells us the last chapter in this struggle has
not been written.