West Coast Port Shutdown & Labor Dispute Update

  • by BPC Staff
  • on February 20, 2015
  • 0 Comments

— “We have 73,000 people whose jobs rely on the Port of Oakland,” Mayor of Oakland Libby Schaaf said.

— Deadlocked West Coast dockworkers and a group representing the firms that run the ports have been told by Labor Secretary Tom Perez to reach an accord or he will bring them back to Washington, D.C., next week. 

—  California political leaders voiced growing exasperation Thursday with a labor standoff that has clogged West Coast ports, as word spread that the main sticking point in negotiations has been the fate of a single, low-level official who rules on disputes involving Los Angeles and Long Beach dockworkers. 

— The Port of Oakland shut down Thursday with 12 cargo vessels stuck at the docks with no one to load or unload them after longshore workers took the day off for a union meeting. 

— A labor dispute that has snarled traffic at ports up and down the West Coast could also give rise to new opportunities for the Port of San Diego. 

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