U.S. President Joe Biden has urged each side within the West Coast ports labor dispute to proceed collective bargaining, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated on Wednesday, including performing Labor Secretary Julie Su was actively participating with the events.
The largest terminal at Southern California’s Port of Long Beach closed for the day shift Monday as dock employees rallied for higher pay. Monday’s short-term closure adopted comparable disruptions on Friday in Oakland, California. More than 22,000 dockworkers at ports stretching from California to Washington state have been working with no contract since July.
The West Coast is residence to the busiest U.S. container port complicated at Los Angeles/Long Beach. Pacific Coast ports are an essential engine of the U.S. economic system and deal with every thing from attire and furnishings to agricultural merchandise and vehicles.
“I can say that the President respects the collective bargaining process as the best way to hold workers and employers to reach mutually beneficial solutions,” the White House spokesperson advised reporters in a press briefing.
“The path forward is for the port workers and their employers to resolve the negotiations so that workers get the wages and quality of life that they so deserve,” the White House spokesperson added.
Groups representing main retailers and producers urged the White House on Monday to intervene in contentious labor negotiations, citing worries about delivery disruptions throughout important vacation procuring seasons.
Contract talks between the employers’ Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and employees’ International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) are within the ultimate stretch, however frustrations are operating excessive after greater than a 12 months on the negotiating desk.
(Reuters – Reporting by Jeff Mason, writing by Kanishka Singh)
