NFIB

West Coast Ports Reopen Under Temporary Injunction
10/09/2002

Citing the nation's economic and military security, President Bush received a court order to reopen the 29 West Coast ports that have stood idle for 11 days, the result of a labor-management contract negotiation stalemate.

Invoking the emergency provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, Bush is seeking to open the ports for an 80-day cooling-off period between the Pacific Maritime Association port operators and shippers, and the longshoremen's labor union. A court hearing next week will determine whether to allow the entire 80-day injunction.

"Americans are working hard every day to bring our economy back from recession," Bush said yesterday. "This nation simply cannot afford to have hundreds of billions of dollars a year in potential manufacturing and agricultural trade sitting idle. Because of the situation at the West Coast ports, our economy is already losing up to $1 billion a day -- economic losses that translate into lost jobs."

Estimates of the current cost of the shutdown are in the billions of dollars.