Open
World Conference of Workers
In Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights
Port Meeting
May Stir Fairness Debate
Bush Aides Briefed Business, Not Labor
By Mike Allen, Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 10, 2002; Page A12
The Bush administration held a briefing for business lobbyists seven hours
before seeking a court order reopening West Coast ports but provided no
similar briefing for labor unions, administration officials said
yesterday.
The briefing, held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the
White House, could complicate efforts by President Bush's aides to portray
him as a neutral party in the politically charged dispute. Bush hoped to
avoid intervening but did so after intense lobbying from corporations and
industry groups, many of them headed by Republican donors.
White House officials said they were torn between their worry about the
billions of dollars in economic damage being caused by the shutdown of 29
ports, and their fear that invoking the presidential powers of the
Taft-Hartley Act for the first time in 24 years could promote a backlash
from labor unions right before the Nov. 5 elections.
The meeting with industry, held Tuesday morning, was the second at the
White House in five days. The administration was still trying to avoid
turning to Taft-Hartley late Friday, when Bush officials met with business
groups in the executive office building and urged them to promote a
settlement by contacting Democratic lawmakers with ties to labor.
"If this process became a political left-right, Republican-Democrat
process, we were going to be throwing gasoline on a fire rather than
creating a cooling-off period," a senior administration official
said. "We needed to get the message out that everyone needed the
ports operating and that for this to become a political battle would doom
it to failure."
Longshoremen returned to the docks last night to begin unloading a backlog
of more than 200 ships after a federal judge granted Bush's request for an
order restarting work. Port operators complained that the 10,500 union
members could work slowly in protest, and administration sources said
measures were put in place to gauge productivity.
The White House political office has invested vast hours in trying to
build alliances with selected unions, and administration officials said
they feared that invoking Taft-Hartley -- which labor leaders immediately
branded as a favor to management -- could set back that effort. Worse,
outside advisers warrned Bush's aides that providing a rallying point for
unions just before the elections could tip the result of some House or
Senate races, especially in Rust Belt states where labor remains
influential.
Administration officials said they received reports throughout the weekend
that port talks were not progressing. Negotiations broke off late Sunday
night, with the sides stymied over the union contention that new
waterfront technology would eliminate jobs.
At 10 a.m. Monday, Bush signed an executive order appointing a three-man
board of inquiry -- the first step under Taft-Hartley toward a forced
reopening of the ports. The board returned its report Tuesday morning, and
Bush announced shortly thereafter that he would seek a court order
restarting work. Slightly more than four hours later, a federal judge in
San Francisco ended the shutdown for a week. Then the parties will return
to discuss whether the judge should extend the reopening for an 80-day
"cooling-off period."
Officials said Karl Rove, Bush's senior adviser, telephoned Teamsters
President James P. Hoffa to try to reassure him about Bush's intentions,
and Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. talked to AFL-CIO President John J.
Sweeney on Sunday.
Sweeney, however, wasn't mollified. Steve Rosenthal, the AFL-CIO's
political director, has begun preparing material about Bush's decision for
use in tight House and Senate races. "We're looking for opportunities
to connect the dots for union members, and this is a basic 'Which side are
you on?' issue," Rosenthal said. "No one around here has been
concerned about the White House effort to divide the labor movement
because when push comes to shove, they will take management's side every
time."
A labor official allied with the administration, who insisted on
anonymity, said the unions working with Bush "understand that the
White House was put in a very difficult position." And a senior
administration official said the White House is not worried about
long-term damage to Bush's relations with labor. "People won't say it
out loud, but there are many union workers around the country who were
relieved, because their jobs were in jeopardy," the official said.
The White House refused to release a list of the groups that were invited
to Tuesday's briefing for business, but officials said the gathering
included more than 50 companies and interest groups and lasted about 40
minutes. An administration official described it as a discussion of
"the mechanics of Taft-Hartley and what it requires and the calendar
process."
The Friday meeting had been held at the request of the National
Association of Manufacturers. A White House economic official spent more
than an hour listening to dire predictions from representatives of about
25 companies and trade groups that were suffering from the weeklong
lockout, including Nike, a grain association and the Grocery Manufacturers
of America.
Among those who spoke was Peter Friedman, executive director of the
Agriculture Ocean Transportation Coalition, who warned that overseas
customers for wheat, grapes, french fries and other products would turn to
other countries for supplies if exports remained stranded. "Our
object was to let them know the severity of the situation," he said.
"Very soon, it was not going to be just rotting food in California
but people losing their jobs all over the country."
Lobbying was also heavy at the Commerce Department, where companies were
sending Secretary Donald L. Evans estimates of how many workers they would
have to lay off each week that the ports remained closed. Bush realized he
could wait no longer.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company