Input Stories

The White House should intervene in labor contract negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance, NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons told CNBC this morning.

What’s going on: “We still have a few days left, and hopefully negotiations will continue and there will not be a strike,” Timmons told CNBC anchor Frank Holland on “Worldwide Exchange.”

• “I think that’s the most important thing that can happen: Both sides come to the table, try to work something out. But if it doesn’t happen, I think it’s incumbent on the administration to take a hard look at invoking Taft-Hartley, [which] happened during the administration of George W. Bush,” he added, referring to the time in 2002 that then-President Bush invoked an emergency provision to reopen 29 West Coast ports where workers were striking.

The background: ILA members have vowed to go on strike at major East and Gulf Coast ports at midnight Monday if a labor deal is not reached.

• On Thursday USMX filed an unfair labor practice charge against the dockworkers’ union, telling the the National Labor Relations Board the ILA was refusing to negotiate (Sourcing Journal).  

Why it’s important: A strike would be devastating for the U.S. economy, Timmons continued.

• “Unfortunately, this strike could really harm consumers,” he said. “It could harm the economy overall . . . [with] over $2 billion of impact every single day if [it] happens.”

How they’re coping: Manufacturers are finding alternate routes to get goods where they need to go.

• “It’s critical that our clients get everything right on time; it’s mission-critical,” Drew Greenblatt, NAM board member and president and owner of custom wire and steel products businesses Marlin Steel and Madsen Steel, told Fox News Thursday. “We may have to fly [our] devices—baskets and racks and carts—on airplanes rather than [send them] by boat.”
• The cost of the workaround? “Hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next couple weeks and months,” Greenblatt told Fox.

What the NAM is doing: The NAM—which recently created a map showing the likely economic impact of a strike at affected ports—has been on Capitol Hill educating legislators on the negative impacts of a strike and urging them to push for White House intervention.

• NAM advocacy helped involve the White House in the ultimately successful talks on a West Coast labor deal last year.