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West Coast Shipping Lockout Enters 10th Day
Aired October 07, 2002 - 14:19 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: President Bush is moving toward possibly ordering western longshoremen back to work. A crippling shutdown of all West Coast ports is in its 10th day now. Experts say the labor dispute that choked off trade between the U.S. and Asia has cost the economy billions of dollars already.
CNN's Casey Wian joins us now from Long Beach, California, with more -- Casey.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Long-awaited step, Kyra, by the Bush administration today stepping in to try to end, at least temporarily, this West Coast port shutdown.
As the first step in ordering both sides back to work under the Taft-Hartley Act, President Bush appointed a three-member board of inquiry, headed by Tennessee Senator Bill Brock, who is a former secretary of labor and a former U.S.trade representative, so he knows these issues very well.
His board is expected to report back to the White House their findings by tomorrow. They're trying to assess the economic damage. It's very clear, as you mentioned, that there is significant damage, some estimates as high as $2 billion a day.
The next step would be the president requesting that the U.S. attorney general ask a federal court to step in and order both sides back to work for an 80-day cooling off period.
After a 10-day port shutdown, the White House decided it could not wait any longer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELAINE CHAO, LABOR SECRETARY: The country has been patient. We have been patient. But now ordinary Americans are being seriously harmed by this dispute. Factory workers are being laid off because they can't get vital parts delivered on time. These layoffs will only increase if the ports do not reopen this week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIAN: Now, the catalyst for this decision: the breakdown of federally mediated negotiations late last night between shippers and longshoremen. According to the shippers, here's the details of the offer that the shoremen left on the table: full-time salaries of between $114,000 and $137,000 a year, fully company paid health benefits, $1 billion contribution to the union pension plan and no job losses to new technology.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH MINIACE, PRESIDENT AND CEO, PACIFIC MARITIME ASSOCIATION: My message last night to the union, I think, was very, very simple. It's time that we put the interest of ourselves to the side and start thinking of the interests of the American people and let's open our ports. They said "no."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIAN: Now, the union is sticking by its position that any new jobs created by that technology, the shippers want, must be union jobs. The shippers say they don't want that to happen because those are management functions. Meanwhile, 200 ships up and down the West Coast, 10,000 longshoremen and about one million containers remain idled by this dispute. As we've been reporting, the economic damage, $2 billion a day by some estimates and even if this is settled temporarily, and workers get back to work on Wednesday, as some expect, it could take up to six weeks to undo the backlog created by this 10-day dispute -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Casey, meanwhile, let's talk about the loot. I mean, is there produce that's rotting? Are there health concerns with regard to the food that's out there? Are they concerned about security or looting possibilities?
WIAN: Haven't heard much concerns about security, mainly because security has been increased at the port so much after 9/11. We've seen immigration officers leaving from this dock behind me, going out and checking the status of the people coming in to the new ships that are still arriving every day and anchoring out at sea.
In terms of the produce rotting, absolutely. That's has been happening for days now. Some of this produce are in refrigerated containers, but the generators only last so long. Those that aren't in refrigerated containers, bananas, for example, are ripening too quickly and already you're starting to see shortages of some produce in some local supermarkets, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Casey Wian.
Thank you.
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 7, 2002 - 14:19 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush is moving toward possibly ordering western longshoremen back to work. A crippling shutdown of all West Coast ports is in its 10th day now. Experts say the labor dispute that choked off trade between the U.S. and Asia has cost the economy billions of dollars already.
CNN's Casey Wian joins us now from Long Beach, California, with more -- Casey.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Long-awaited step, Kyra, by the Bush administration today stepping in to try to end, at least temporarily, this West Coast port shutdown.
As the first step in ordering both sides back to work under the Taft-Hartley Act, President Bush appointed a three-member board of inquiry, headed by Tennessee Senator Bill Brock, who is a former secretary of labor and a former U.S.trade representative, so he knows these issues very well.
His board is expected to report back to the White House their findings by tomorrow. They're trying to assess the economic damage. It's very clear, as you mentioned, that there is significant damage, some estimates as high as $2 billion a day.
The next step would be the president requesting that the U.S. attorney general ask a federal court to step in and order both sides back to work for an 80-day cooling off period.
After a 10-day port shutdown, the White House decided it could not wait any longer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELAINE CHAO, LABOR SECRETARY: The country has been patient. We have been patient. But now ordinary Americans are being seriously harmed by this dispute. Factory workers are being laid off because they can't get vital parts delivered on time. These layoffs will only increase if the ports do not reopen this week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIAN: Now, the catalyst for this decision: the breakdown of federally mediated negotiations late last night between shippers and longshoremen. According to the shippers, here's the details of the offer that the shoremen left on the table: full-time salaries of between $114,000 and $137,000 a year, fully company paid health benefits, $1 billion contribution to the union pension plan and no job losses to new technology.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH MINIACE, PRESIDENT AND CEO, PACIFIC MARITIME ASSOCIATION: My message last night to the union, I think, was very, very simple. It's time that we put the interest of ourselves to the side and start thinking of the interests of the American people and let's open our ports. They said "no."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIAN: Now, the union is sticking by its position that any new jobs created by that technology, the shippers want, must be union jobs. The shippers say they don't want that to happen because those are management functions. Meanwhile, 200 ships up and down the West Coast, 10,000 longshoremen and about one million containers remain idled by this dispute. As we've been reporting, the economic damage, $2 billion a day by some estimates and even if this is settled temporarily, and workers get back to work on Wednesday, as some expect, it could take up to six weeks to undo the backlog created by this 10-day dispute -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Casey, meanwhile, let's talk about the loot. I mean, is there produce that's rotting? Are there health concerns with regard to the food that's out there? Are they concerned about security or looting possibilities?
WIAN: Haven't heard much concerns about security, mainly because security has been increased at the port so much after 9/11. We've seen immigration officers leaving from this dock behind me, going out and checking the status of the people coming in to the new ships that are still arriving every day and anchoring out at sea.
In terms of the produce rotting, absolutely. That's has been happening for days now. Some of this produce are in refrigerated containers, but the generators only last so long. Those that aren't in refrigerated containers, bananas, for example, are ripening too quickly and already you're starting to see shortages of some produce in some local supermarkets, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Casey Wian.
Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
