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CNN Live At Daybreak
Fallout from West Coast Port Labor Dispute
Aired October 09, 2002 - 05:14 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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In business news their morning, fallout from that West Coast port labor dispute. Later this morning, Mitsubishi Motor Company will suspend operations at its plant in Normal, Illinois. A company spokesman tells us the plant is running out of engines and transmissions that come through West Coast ports from Japan. But employees will still report to work.
As you may know, though, that port lockout is over for now. A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order ending the lockout at least through next week. A hearing on the labor dispute will be held a week from today.
CNN Financial News correspondent Casey Wian has more on the effects of this lockout.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Predawn on day 11 of the West Coast port shutdown and a ships services boat picks up fresh crew members from cargo vessels stranded by the dispute. Giant ships are lined up for miles waiting for the ports to reopen. Even this experienced captain has trouble navigating through the maze.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got another mile or so. I'm steering into that, it's like two ships into the left.
WIAN (on camera): Somewhere on this ship are the parts needed to reopen the General Motors Toyota joint venture factory that closed because of the port shutdown. The ship has been at anchor for over a week and is expected to receive priority when the docks reopen.
(voice-over): The Los Angeles Marine Exchange is the equivalent of air traffic control for ships. It's now trying to decide which of the 125 ships surrounding southern California ports get to unload first. Unwinding the backlog of containers is expected to take six weeks.
JACK KYSER, L.A. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP.: We roughly figure you've got about 500,000 containers that you've got to unload and then plus you have to reload the ships. The big problem, of course, is which ship gets unloaded first and they said it's going to be, you know, first come first served. But then you've got all the railroad equipment. You've got to move that in because you've got container equipment sort of parked around in, all over the western United States.
WIAN: Global transportation helps retailers like Wal-Mart and Target clear their goods through Customs. Here, workers process paperwork for merchandise stranded on ships.
GUY FOX, GLOBAL TRANSPORTATION, STONEPATH GROUP: When this action on the docks is resolved, we're going to have to have people here probably 24 hours a day just to keep up with the flow. We have to, again, do all the refiling of the Customs entries. Even though we've done a certain amount of paperwork and inputting into the computer, we have to go back and handle each one of those files again.
WIAN: Adding to the delays, longshoremen also predict labor shortages, while shippers worry about work slowdowns.
(on camera): The California Trucking Association warns of chaos when the ports reopen. Thousands of trucks are expected to line up here and spill onto local highways, so even commuters will feel the effects of the backlog.
Casey Wian, CNN, Long Beach, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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 October 9, 2002 - 05:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: In business news their morning, fallout from that West Coast port labor dispute. Later this morning, Mitsubishi Motor Company will suspend operations at its plant in Normal, Illinois. A company spokesman tells us the plant is running out of engines and transmissions that come through West Coast ports from Japan. But employees will still report to work.
As you may know, though, that port lockout is over for now. A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order ending the lockout at least through next week. A hearing on the labor dispute will be held a week from today.
CNN Financial News correspondent Casey Wian has more on the effects of this lockout.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Predawn on day 11 of the West Coast port shutdown and a ships services boat picks up fresh crew members from cargo vessels stranded by the dispute. Giant ships are lined up for miles waiting for the ports to reopen. Even this experienced captain has trouble navigating through the maze.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got another mile or so. I'm steering into that, it's like two ships into the left.
WIAN (on camera): Somewhere on this ship are the parts needed to reopen the General Motors Toyota joint venture factory that closed because of the port shutdown. The ship has been at anchor for over a week and is expected to receive priority when the docks reopen.
(voice-over): The Los Angeles Marine Exchange is the equivalent of air traffic control for ships. It's now trying to decide which of the 125 ships surrounding southern California ports get to unload first. Unwinding the backlog of containers is expected to take six weeks.
JACK KYSER, L.A. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP.: We roughly figure you've got about 500,000 containers that you've got to unload and then plus you have to reload the ships. The big problem, of course, is which ship gets unloaded first and they said it's going to be, you know, first come first served. But then you've got all the railroad equipment. You've got to move that in because you've got container equipment sort of parked around in, all over the western United States.
WIAN: Global transportation helps retailers like Wal-Mart and Target clear their goods through Customs. Here, workers process paperwork for merchandise stranded on ships.
GUY FOX, GLOBAL TRANSPORTATION, STONEPATH GROUP: When this action on the docks is resolved, we're going to have to have people here probably 24 hours a day just to keep up with the flow. We have to, again, do all the refiling of the Customs entries. Even though we've done a certain amount of paperwork and inputting into the computer, we have to go back and handle each one of those files again.
WIAN: Adding to the delays, longshoremen also predict labor shortages, while shippers worry about work slowdowns.
(on camera): The California Trucking Association warns of chaos when the ports reopen. Thousands of trucks are expected to line up here and spill onto local highways, so even commuters will feel the effects of the backlog.
Casey Wian, CNN, Long Beach, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
