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CNN Live Today

Standstill on the Docks

Aired September 30, 2002 - 10:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Up and down the West Coast, the typical dockside bustle is quiet, the cargo is stacking up. The talks between shipping lines and longshoremen collapsed yesterday, triggering a second job walkoff that could cost the nation an estimated $1 billion a day.
Our financial news reporter Casey Wian is in Long Beach, California with the latest.

Casey, good morning to you.

I saw an interesting quote in the wires today. Basically, it said, if you went to a shopping mall this weekend, the store you are covering this day affects you?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, because manufacturers, retailers all depend on what they call just in time inventory right now. They do not keep a lot of merchandise in warehouses. It costs too much to do that. They depend on the free flow of goods in the ports, and the 29 West Coast ports, as you mentioned, a billion dollars a day, with them being closed, something like $300 billion a year worth of products flows through these ports, and you know, the damage to the economy is, you know, incredible. Seven percent of the U.S. gross domestic product goes through the U.S. ports.

Behind me you can see some of the more than 100 ships that have been stranded by this port shutdown, unable to offload their cargo. Some of the average container ships, 5,000 of the 40 foot containers on each one of those ships. You can get a sense of how much merchandise, goods and agricultural products are not moving throughout economy.

Not just ships that are stranded, 10,500 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are off of the job today, because shippers up and down the West Coast decided to resume their lockout, which began on Friday evening.

The Pacific Maritime Association, the group that represents shippers, says they're doing this lockout because the union has been is engaging in work slowdowns for weeks, and it locked union members out of the docks in response to those work slowdowns. Now, predictably, the union blames the shippers for the port shutdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SPINOSA, PRESISENT, ILWU: We have been responsible union. We have been a responsible union for the last 30 years. We continue to be a responsible union. We have not yet ever negotiated a strike situation within our collective bargaining unit right now. It's the employers who continue to move, to lockout, because of the frustrations they have on their own side and their own set of negotiations that they cannot get the job done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIAN: Now, this dispute is all about how Longshoremen do get the job done. Shippers at these West Coast ports say these ports are not competitive with other ports around the world. They are still using old technology. They want to move new technology into the ports. There are some job functions, clerical functions, that the shippers say it takes four people time to do what ports around the world. They can be done by one person. The union members, who are very well paid, they make between $80,000 and $150,000 a year, they are afraid of losing jobs to new technology. So this is what is at the heart of the dispute, and shippers defended their actions of shutting down the port.

JOE MINIACE, PRES. & CEO, PACIFIC MARITIME ASSN.: This is not considered a lockout. It's a defensive shutdown. If in the past, we considered it clearly a defensive shutdown against the slowdown strike actions by the union. We are simply today saying we are not going to order labor that is going to come in and strike us.

WIAN: Now negotiations are scheduled for later today in San Francisco between the two sides. Shippers have requested the help of a federal mediator. The union has not so far -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Casey Wian in Long Beach, California, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 30, 2002 - 10:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Up and down the West Coast, the typical dockside bustle is quiet, the cargo is stacking up. The talks between shipping lines and longshoremen collapsed yesterday, triggering a second job walkoff that could cost the nation an estimated $1 billion a day.
Our financial news reporter Casey Wian is in Long Beach, California with the latest.

Casey, good morning to you.

I saw an interesting quote in the wires today. Basically, it said, if you went to a shopping mall this weekend, the store you are covering this day affects you?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, because manufacturers, retailers all depend on what they call just in time inventory right now. They do not keep a lot of merchandise in warehouses. It costs too much to do that. They depend on the free flow of goods in the ports, and the 29 West Coast ports, as you mentioned, a billion dollars a day, with them being closed, something like $300 billion a year worth of products flows through these ports, and you know, the damage to the economy is, you know, incredible. Seven percent of the U.S. gross domestic product goes through the U.S. ports.

Behind me you can see some of the more than 100 ships that have been stranded by this port shutdown, unable to offload their cargo. Some of the average container ships, 5,000 of the 40 foot containers on each one of those ships. You can get a sense of how much merchandise, goods and agricultural products are not moving throughout economy.

Not just ships that are stranded, 10,500 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union are off of the job today, because shippers up and down the West Coast decided to resume their lockout, which began on Friday evening.

The Pacific Maritime Association, the group that represents shippers, says they're doing this lockout because the union has been is engaging in work slowdowns for weeks, and it locked union members out of the docks in response to those work slowdowns. Now, predictably, the union blames the shippers for the port shutdown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM SPINOSA, PRESISENT, ILWU: We have been responsible union. We have been a responsible union for the last 30 years. We continue to be a responsible union. We have not yet ever negotiated a strike situation within our collective bargaining unit right now. It's the employers who continue to move, to lockout, because of the frustrations they have on their own side and their own set of negotiations that they cannot get the job done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIAN: Now, this dispute is all about how Longshoremen do get the job done. Shippers at these West Coast ports say these ports are not competitive with other ports around the world. They are still using old technology. They want to move new technology into the ports. There are some job functions, clerical functions, that the shippers say it takes four people time to do what ports around the world. They can be done by one person. The union members, who are very well paid, they make between $80,000 and $150,000 a year, they are afraid of losing jobs to new technology. So this is what is at the heart of the dispute, and shippers defended their actions of shutting down the port.

JOE MINIACE, PRES. & CEO, PACIFIC MARITIME ASSN.: This is not considered a lockout. It's a defensive shutdown. If in the past, we considered it clearly a defensive shutdown against the slowdown strike actions by the union. We are simply today saying we are not going to order labor that is going to come in and strike us.

WIAN: Now negotiations are scheduled for later today in San Francisco between the two sides. Shippers have requested the help of a federal mediator. The union has not so far -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Casey Wian in Long Beach, California, thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com