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Longshore Lockout
Aired September 30, 2002 - 14:15 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's to get to our Casey Wian in Long Beach. Casey, let's talk about this shutdown, and first of all, what kind of cargo are we talking about? What is being stopped from coming in and out?
CASEY WIAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just about everything imaginable, from textiles, to clothes, to toys, auto parts, entire cars, all kinds of agricultural products, just about anything that comes from Asia to the United States is not making it. There are more than 100 cargo containers as of late last night. It was last count we had, more than 100 of them stranded off the ports, and each one of those containers, cargo ships, can carry between 5,000 and 6,000 40 foot containers of merchandise. So that is an awful lot of toys, an awful lot of clothes, an awful lot of parts for different industries. The damage to the economy, you can see, can really, mount very quickly.
PHILLIPS: So if we want to get out start doing holiday shopping, this could affect us right now, right this minute.
WIAN: Absolutely, this is the busiest time year for West Coast ports. The month of September is when most of the holiday merchandise begins arriving. Already, retailers are saying, that for everything from toys to clothes, their shelves are, not we don't want to say the shelves are bare, but there will be supply disruptions of certain items.
Retailers now operate on very thin inventories in their warehouses. It's called "just in time" inventory. It is much more cost-effective to not stockpile a bunch of goods in warehouses all over country. So these retailers depend on the smooth flow of this cargo from Asia and other places, through the ports off West Coast to trucks, onto trains, through rest of the country. They depend on that happening very quickly, and if it doesn't, the impact at the consumer level can be felt right away.
PHILLIPS: Let's talk about ripple effect. Casey, we can go all the way to Hawaii, right? Hawaii has such a tremendous dependence on shipping.
WIAN: Hawaii is very concerned, because just about other than pineapple and a few other things, there is not much that is made or grown on that island. Everything comes from either Asia or here on the mainland. So Hawaii is an early, early casualty of this dispute. It is going to be interesting to see how long the federal government waits before stepping in. The federal government does have the authority to tell both sides, order them back to work and have an 800- day cooling-off period, they call it. And President Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer said earlier today that even though this port dispute has been short, the administration is very concerned about it, so it is likely that they are not going to let it go on, for too much longer.
PHILLIPS: How quickly could we see a resolution, because of course the economy has been a big concern for -- since September 11th, Casey. This one more thing that can really hurt us.
WIAN: Absolutely. Talked to the Pacific Maritime Association, the organization that represents shippers late last night, and they said from their point of view, the two sides are not that far apart on reaching a new contract. They have been without a contract through July 1. They were operating under contract extensions for a couple months. The union stopped agreeing to those extensions, so that's what led to this breakdown.
But according to the shippers, the two sides, in terms of the negotiations, are not very far apart. We are looking right now at 20 minutes after 11:00 West Coast time, there are new negotiations scheduled for 2:00 local time in San Francisco, so it is possible that a breakthrough could occur. The shippers say that they will not reopen the ports unless the either agrees to more temporary extensions of the expired contract or reaches an entire new deal.
So at least what they are saying publicly is that they are not that far apart, but from the rhetoric you are seeing, and that story you just aired is very indicative of kinds of things we are hearing, very angry union members, very angry shippers, saying that the union members are deliberately, slowing down their operations, and in some cases, sabotaging ships and sabotaging equipment. The rhetoric is getting worse and the tensions are building, so it's hard to tell how seen it is going wrap up -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Casey Wian in Long Beach. Thanks, Casey.
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 - 14:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Now let's to get to our Casey Wian in Long Beach. Casey, let's talk about this shutdown, and first of all, what kind of cargo are we talking about? What is being stopped from coming in and out?
CASEY WIAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just about everything imaginable, from textiles, to clothes, to toys, auto parts, entire cars, all kinds of agricultural products, just about anything that comes from Asia to the United States is not making it. There are more than 100 cargo containers as of late last night. It was last count we had, more than 100 of them stranded off the ports, and each one of those containers, cargo ships, can carry between 5,000 and 6,000 40 foot containers of merchandise. So that is an awful lot of toys, an awful lot of clothes, an awful lot of parts for different industries. The damage to the economy, you can see, can really, mount very quickly.
PHILLIPS: So if we want to get out start doing holiday shopping, this could affect us right now, right this minute.
WIAN: Absolutely, this is the busiest time year for West Coast ports. The month of September is when most of the holiday merchandise begins arriving. Already, retailers are saying, that for everything from toys to clothes, their shelves are, not we don't want to say the shelves are bare, but there will be supply disruptions of certain items.
Retailers now operate on very thin inventories in their warehouses. It's called "just in time" inventory. It is much more cost-effective to not stockpile a bunch of goods in warehouses all over country. So these retailers depend on the smooth flow of this cargo from Asia and other places, through the ports off West Coast to trucks, onto trains, through rest of the country. They depend on that happening very quickly, and if it doesn't, the impact at the consumer level can be felt right away.
PHILLIPS: Let's talk about ripple effect. Casey, we can go all the way to Hawaii, right? Hawaii has such a tremendous dependence on shipping.
WIAN: Hawaii is very concerned, because just about other than pineapple and a few other things, there is not much that is made or grown on that island. Everything comes from either Asia or here on the mainland. So Hawaii is an early, early casualty of this dispute. It is going to be interesting to see how long the federal government waits before stepping in. The federal government does have the authority to tell both sides, order them back to work and have an 800- day cooling-off period, they call it. And President Bush's spokesman Ari Fleischer said earlier today that even though this port dispute has been short, the administration is very concerned about it, so it is likely that they are not going to let it go on, for too much longer.
PHILLIPS: How quickly could we see a resolution, because of course the economy has been a big concern for -- since September 11th, Casey. This one more thing that can really hurt us.
WIAN: Absolutely. Talked to the Pacific Maritime Association, the organization that represents shippers late last night, and they said from their point of view, the two sides are not that far apart on reaching a new contract. They have been without a contract through July 1. They were operating under contract extensions for a couple months. The union stopped agreeing to those extensions, so that's what led to this breakdown.
But according to the shippers, the two sides, in terms of the negotiations, are not very far apart. We are looking right now at 20 minutes after 11:00 West Coast time, there are new negotiations scheduled for 2:00 local time in San Francisco, so it is possible that a breakthrough could occur. The shippers say that they will not reopen the ports unless the either agrees to more temporary extensions of the expired contract or reaches an entire new deal.
So at least what they are saying publicly is that they are not that far apart, but from the rhetoric you are seeing, and that story you just aired is very indicative of kinds of things we are hearing, very angry union members, very angry shippers, saying that the union members are deliberately, slowing down their operations, and in some cases, sabotaging ships and sabotaging equipment. The rhetoric is getting worse and the tensions are building, so it's hard to tell how seen it is going wrap up -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Casey Wian in Long Beach. Thanks, Casey.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
