Bush Seeking Court-Ordered Port Opening

	West Coast Port Shutdown
	Bush Seeking Court-Ordered Port Opening (Oct. 8) Port Decision Could Come Tuesday (Oct. 8) Bush Intervening in Port Lockout (Oct. 7) West Coast Port Closings Idle Many Truckers (Oct. 4) West Coast Port Users Launch Contingency Plans (Oct. 4) Impact of Port Shutdown Widens (Oct. 4) West Coast Port Closure Drags On (Oct. 3) Canary Seeks Intervention in Port Closure (Oct. 2) (Note: To return to this story, click the "Back" button on your browser.)

As President Bush announced he was invoking the Taft-Hartley Act to temporarily resolve the West Coast port lockout Tuesday, the dockworkers union announced an offer to come back to work for 30 days under their old contract, providing a confusing flurry of statements and reactions.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union said, just before President Bush began speaking late in the afternoon Tuesday, that it would return to work Wednesday for a period of 30 days under the terms of their old contract, which had expired in July.

The Pacific Maritime Association, the group that operates the 29 ports on the West Coast, had no immediate reaction to the offer by the union, the Associated Press reported.

In a televised statement, Bush, referring to a report he received from the inquiry board he commissioned Monday, said that the lockout was threatening the nation’s economic recovery and its national security as much of the materiel sent to America’s troops overseas is loaded at ports on the West Coast.

“The work stoppage is hurting our entire economy,” Bush said in his announcement. “It is hurting truckers and rail operators who carry goods to other parts of America.

“It is hurting the security of our country, and the federal government must act.”.

The Taft-Hartley Act, signed in 1947, allows the president to force workers back to work for an 80-day cooling-off period in cases where a labor dispute is affecting the national security of the United States.

"We are extremely gratified that he has invoked the Taft-Hartley Act to ensure that the economic bleeding of America ends," William Canary, president of the American Trucking Associations, said. "It is time to get these ports working again so that America's economy and national security are no longer threatened."

The inquiry board said in its report that it has “no confidence that the parties will resolve the West Coast ports dispute within a reasonable time.”

After the announcement by Bush, CNBC reported union members on the West Coast were upset by the invocation of Taft-Hartley. Teamsters driving trucks near the ports circled the docks honking their horns in protest, the financial news channel said.

The lockout, which began over a week ago, is reportedly costing the U.S. economy nearly $1 billion a day.

(Click here for the full statement from ATA.)