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Bush Will Intervene in Labor Dispute

Aired October 08, 2002 - 14:10   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: Major movement today in the labor dispute that has placed the West Coast shipping industry and all its cargo on hold. The White House says President Bush is intervening.
CNN's Jen Rogers has been following the port lockout from San Francisco. She joins us now, solving some of those rumors that have been tossed around.

Hi -- Jen.

JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Trying to, Kyra. A lot of back and forth here. Right now, it seems that both parties are really sort of waiting and watching to see what happens as we get more news out of Washington. Of course, there will be an address from the president. After that, things might become a little clearer, especially in terms of the timeline that we might see breaking down and when we might have workers back on the dock.

I just got off the phone with a spokesman over at the Pacific Maritime Association. They say that they haven't received any paperwork from the government yet or a subpoena. So they say they can't comment. Why would they be possibly receiving a subpoena? They could be the defendant here: When the government goes to seek this injunction, the management are the people that did this shutdown, what they called a defensive shutdown, because of slowdowns by the union. So to open it up, it could be against them as the defendant.

Talking to management -- they're over at their offices today -- say they are quite busy. They are continuing to deal with contingency planning. They said they dealt with that yesterday, trying to figure out what will happen when and if a injunction comes down, in terms of getting people back to work. A lot of people would need to be called in, of course, because there is a real backlog of ships out there on the sea. More than 200 ships right now off the West Coast. So bringing workers in here as soon as possible would be the idea.

Talking to the president of the PMA earlier, he says he could see this happening about one shift after, and if, an injunction is handed down. So that would mean if they wanted to get people on by 6:00 p.m. today, they would need to have the injunction in hand by 2:00 p.m. As we get closer and closer, maybe that looks a little bit less likely. So maybe you get it in later today and have a morning shift tomorrow.

Again, a lot of contingency planning in place. The union on the record saying they're not very happy with this move. They think it's counterproductive, and they don't like it -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Our Jen Rodgers, thank you so much.

The shipping industry isn't the only one hurting from the port lockout out in the west. There is a ripple effect that reaches well inland.

CNN's Lisa Leiter joins us now from suburban Chicago, where a trucking firm is feeling the downside of this trickle down economics.

LISA LEITER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Kyra. We're here at Central States Trucking in Bensenville, Illinois. And if the ships can't come into the port and the cargo can't be unloaded, get onto the railroads, and get to the Midwest, then trucking companies like Central States are in a lot of trouble. You have got a lot of truckers sitting here today idle, unable to go the railroads and pick up any container shipments. This company normally unloads about 200 container shipments a day, of everything from clothing to drug company supplies, just about everything. But today they're only unloading nine containers.

I'm sitting here with Bob Bado. He's been a trucker for years.

Bob, how bad is this situation?

BOB BADO, TRUCK DRIVER: Well, in about the last 26 years, I've been involved with containers about 12 of those years. This is the worst I've seen it coming into our area especially since Wednesday. Today, like you said, we only had nine containers. We're hoping that everything clears up on the West Coast, so we can get freight in.

LEITER: Even if President Bush does intervene to open up the ports again, it won't be an immediate resolution for you, right? It will take some time.

BADO: No, Lisa, it won't. It would probably be at least seven days before they would even start shipping across and maybe 10 days or so before we would even receive anything here. Then the container yards are full. So we have to wait for that to clear out and unload.

LEITER: So that means quite a bit of lost income for you?

BADO: Yes, it's going to take a little bite, especially with the holiday seasons coming up.

LEITER: And this is normally your busiest time, right, with the holiday shopping season and retailers ramping up getting more goods on the shelves.

BADO: This is our busiest time of the year, yes.

LEITER: So what is this going to do to your business?

BADO: It is going to slow us down at this point and time, but we have other businesses that will help us along this. And Central States's been good to help us out to pick up some of the other, air freight, which has expanded considerably because of what has gone on. But that takes back to the rail once again. LEITER: Bob, we hear some of those planes overhead.

Kyra, a lot of shippers telling Central States that they've had to bring in goods by other ways, and air freight is certainly one of the ways they're doing so -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So Lisa, Bob will never get back the revenue that he's losing right now, right? He really relies on the steady business?

LEITER: That's exactly right. Once the ports open up again, obviously, railroads and trucking companies out there are going to be scrambling to get these goods. And they're going to be very, very busy. But the bottom line is there are only so many trucks and only so many drivers, and there are federal regulations that limit how many hours they can drive. So they will never get back this money; even if there's a lot of work out there, they can only do what they can do. So it's going to be very tough for a lot of these truckers that have already suffered because of the economic slowdown over the past year or so.

PHILLIPS: Our Lisa Leiter with the human side of how this is affecting folks. Thanks so much, Lisa.

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 8, 2002 - 14:10   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Major movement today in the labor dispute that has placed the West Coast shipping industry and all its cargo on hold. The White House says President Bush is intervening.
CNN's Jen Rogers has been following the port lockout from San Francisco. She joins us now, solving some of those rumors that have been tossed around.

Hi -- Jen.

JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Trying to, Kyra. A lot of back and forth here. Right now, it seems that both parties are really sort of waiting and watching to see what happens as we get more news out of Washington. Of course, there will be an address from the president. After that, things might become a little clearer, especially in terms of the timeline that we might see breaking down and when we might have workers back on the dock.

I just got off the phone with a spokesman over at the Pacific Maritime Association. They say that they haven't received any paperwork from the government yet or a subpoena. So they say they can't comment. Why would they be possibly receiving a subpoena? They could be the defendant here: When the government goes to seek this injunction, the management are the people that did this shutdown, what they called a defensive shutdown, because of slowdowns by the union. So to open it up, it could be against them as the defendant.

Talking to management -- they're over at their offices today -- say they are quite busy. They are continuing to deal with contingency planning. They said they dealt with that yesterday, trying to figure out what will happen when and if a injunction comes down, in terms of getting people back to work. A lot of people would need to be called in, of course, because there is a real backlog of ships out there on the sea. More than 200 ships right now off the West Coast. So bringing workers in here as soon as possible would be the idea.

Talking to the president of the PMA earlier, he says he could see this happening about one shift after, and if, an injunction is handed down. So that would mean if they wanted to get people on by 6:00 p.m. today, they would need to have the injunction in hand by 2:00 p.m. As we get closer and closer, maybe that looks a little bit less likely. So maybe you get it in later today and have a morning shift tomorrow.

Again, a lot of contingency planning in place. The union on the record saying they're not very happy with this move. They think it's counterproductive, and they don't like it -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Our Jen Rodgers, thank you so much.

The shipping industry isn't the only one hurting from the port lockout out in the west. There is a ripple effect that reaches well inland.

CNN's Lisa Leiter joins us now from suburban Chicago, where a trucking firm is feeling the downside of this trickle down economics.

LISA LEITER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Kyra. We're here at Central States Trucking in Bensenville, Illinois. And if the ships can't come into the port and the cargo can't be unloaded, get onto the railroads, and get to the Midwest, then trucking companies like Central States are in a lot of trouble. You have got a lot of truckers sitting here today idle, unable to go the railroads and pick up any container shipments. This company normally unloads about 200 container shipments a day, of everything from clothing to drug company supplies, just about everything. But today they're only unloading nine containers.

I'm sitting here with Bob Bado. He's been a trucker for years.

Bob, how bad is this situation?

BOB BADO, TRUCK DRIVER: Well, in about the last 26 years, I've been involved with containers about 12 of those years. This is the worst I've seen it coming into our area especially since Wednesday. Today, like you said, we only had nine containers. We're hoping that everything clears up on the West Coast, so we can get freight in.

LEITER: Even if President Bush does intervene to open up the ports again, it won't be an immediate resolution for you, right? It will take some time.

BADO: No, Lisa, it won't. It would probably be at least seven days before they would even start shipping across and maybe 10 days or so before we would even receive anything here. Then the container yards are full. So we have to wait for that to clear out and unload.

LEITER: So that means quite a bit of lost income for you?

BADO: Yes, it's going to take a little bite, especially with the holiday seasons coming up.

LEITER: And this is normally your busiest time, right, with the holiday shopping season and retailers ramping up getting more goods on the shelves.

BADO: This is our busiest time of the year, yes.

LEITER: So what is this going to do to your business?

BADO: It is going to slow us down at this point and time, but we have other businesses that will help us along this. And Central States's been good to help us out to pick up some of the other, air freight, which has expanded considerably because of what has gone on. But that takes back to the rail once again. LEITER: Bob, we hear some of those planes overhead.

Kyra, a lot of shippers telling Central States that they've had to bring in goods by other ways, and air freight is certainly one of the ways they're doing so -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: So Lisa, Bob will never get back the revenue that he's losing right now, right? He really relies on the steady business?

LEITER: That's exactly right. Once the ports open up again, obviously, railroads and trucking companies out there are going to be scrambling to get these goods. And they're going to be very, very busy. But the bottom line is there are only so many trucks and only so many drivers, and there are federal regulations that limit how many hours they can drive. So they will never get back this money; even if there's a lot of work out there, they can only do what they can do. So it's going to be very tough for a lot of these truckers that have already suffered because of the economic slowdown over the past year or so.

PHILLIPS: Our Lisa Leiter with the human side of how this is affecting folks. Thanks so much, Lisa.

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