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 Perez was sent to join the talks in San Francisco by President
Barack Obama, who has come under mounting pressure to intervene in
the labor conflict that has rippled through the commercial supply
chain across the Pacific and by some estimates could ultimately cost
the U.S. economy billions of dollars.
His arrival came as several of the busiest West Coast ports, closed
to incoming cargo freighters during the three-day holiday weekend,
reopened in full for about nine hours on Tuesday, then suspended
vessel loading and unloading again for the night.
Perez met separately with each party, then met briefly with both
sides together, and further sessions were expected on Wednesday,
sources familiar with the situation told Reuters.
"Secretary Perez made clear that the dispute has led to a very
negative impact on the U.S. economy, and further delay risks tens of
thousands of jobs and will cost American businesses hundreds of
millions of dollars," Labor Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa
said in a statement at day's end.
Perez urged the parties "to come to an immediate agreement to
prevent further damage to our economy," she said.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, representing 20,000
dockworkers, and the bargaining agent for shippers and terminal
operators, the Pacific Maritime Association, have declined public
comment since agreeing last Friday to honor a news blackout
requested by a federal mediator.
The PMA previously said negotiations hit a snag over a union demand
for changes in the system of binding arbitration of contract
disputes. The union has insisted an accord is near.
Labor law experts said Obama has few other options at his disposal
to spur a breakthrough in talks, which have dragged on for nine
months amid worsening cargo backups and curtailed port operations
that the two sides have blamed on each other.
And it was not clear what Perez could bring to the table besides the
symbolic weight of Cabinet-level involvement.
DISRUPTIONS CONTINUE
Operations to load and unload cargo vessels at West Coast ports,
which handle nearly half of all U.S. maritime trade and more than 70
percent of imports from Asia, were halted through the holiday
weekend, before resuming during the day on Tuesday.
It was the longest such disruption to date in the labor dispute.
Vessel operations were likewise ceased through last weekend, and
again last Thursday, a union holiday.
At the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, night vessel operations
were suspended again late Tuesday, as they have been nightly since
the companies started canceling late shifts on Jan. 12 to focus on
daytime work.
The same has been true since December at the ports of Oakland,
California, and Seattle and Tacoma in Washington state.
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Daytime work has continued throughout in the dockyards, rail yards
and terminal gates. Some smaller ports remained open to night-time
vessel operations as well.
A domino effect has cascaded through the U.S. economy, extending to
agriculture, manufacturing, retail and transportation.
California farmers have been especially hard hit, with port
disruptions posing a major barrier to perishable goods headed to
Asian markets and export losses estimated to be running at hundreds
of millions of dollars a week.
Japan's Honda Motor Co said on Sunday it would slow production for a
week at three North American plants due to delays in parts shipments
from Asia. Other automakers say they are switching to higher-cost
air freight to minimize slowdowns.
The union has denied orchestrating work slowdowns, as the companies
have charged. Union officials fault changes in shipping practices
the carriers themselves have instituted and say that curtailing port
operations has only worsened matters.
The last time contract talks led to a full shutdown of the West
Coast ports was in 2002, when the companies imposed a lockout that
was lifted 10 days later under a court order sought by President
George W. Bush under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act.
Retail and manufacturing executives have projected that a full,
extended shutdown of the ports now could cost the U.S. economy some
$2 billion a day.
Invoking Taft-Hartley would be a long shot under current
circumstances, said Daniel Mitchell, professor emeritus for
management and public policy at the University of California, Los
Angeles.
Obama would need to convince a federal judge that there was a work
stoppage - not just a slowdown - stemming from a labor dispute and
that it posed a national emergency, rather than an inconvenience to
industry, Mitchell said.
(Reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional
reporting by Krista Hughes in Washington; Editing by Bill Trott,
Eric Walsh & Kim Coghill)
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