The Bush Administration is reportedly taking the first steps necessary to intervene in the lockout that has shut down Pacific Coast ports in the U.S.
According to an AP report, the president is creating a board of inquiry, considered a first step toward ordering port workers back to their jobs. A board would make an assessment of the economic damage of the labor dispute and then determine whether the two sides are negotiating in good faith.
The formation of the board is a provision of the Taft-Hartley Act. Reports began circulating that the Bush Administration would form a board shortly after talks broke down between the union and management during Sunday night negotiations.
The lockout is proving costly, with American agricultural products rotting on Pacific docks rather than going to overseas markets. Scrap paper and metal recyclers also rely on the Pacific ports to ship materials to China and other Asian destinations. The lockout began Sunday, Sept. 29.
Should the Bush Administration intervene, the board that is being created will ask a federal court to end the lockout for an 80-day cooling off period because the dispute is “imperiling the national health or safety.”
Though in place since 1947, Taft-Hartley intervention is seldom invoked. The last time it was used was when former President Carter failed to win a 1978 injunction he sought against coal miners. According to the AP report, President Bush’s political advisers fear invoking the act would energize the Democratic Party’s labor base in the run-up to November’s midterm elections and may not be effective in creating a long-term solution to the dispute.
However, other officials are reportedly urging a cooling off period as a way to delay any negative economic fallout until after the Christmas holidays.