• Labour Secretary Tom Perez will try to secure agreement
between parties
• LA and Long Beach ports have more than 30 ships waiting
to unload
• Negotiations have been ongoing for weeks causing major
delays
LOS ANGELES, California - US President Barack Obama has
asked Labor Secretary Tom Perez to intervene in the ongoing dockworkers strike
on the West Coast, which has caused severe shipping delays.
Perez will travel to California to help negotiate an
agreement between the dockworkers' union and port authorities that has led to
closed ports along the West Coast of the US, the White House said Saturday.
"The negotiations over the functioning of the West
Coast Ports have been taking place for months with the administration urging
the parties to resolve their differences," said White House spokesman Eric
Schultz.
"Out of concern for the economic consequences of
further delay, the president has directed his Secretary of Labour Tom Perez to
travel to California to meet with the parties to urge them to resolve their
dispute quickly at the bargaining table," Schultz added.
The dispute between the union representing 20,000
dockworkers at 29 ports and the Pacific Maritime Association has caused a
back-up of nearly 30 freighters wanting to unload cargo at the ports of Los
Angeles and Long Beach, California.
Even before the labour dispute there was a major
congestion crisis brewing at West Coast ports, and the shutdowns this weekend
are only making the situation worse.
At the combined ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach,
about US $1 billion worth of cargo comes through every day. Most of it is from
Asia: electronics, clothes, toys and car parts and the delays have hit several
West Coast industries hard.
The delays have forced several shipping companies
including the shipping giant Maersk Line to suspend or reduce the number of
vessels calling at the ports, which shipping hubs on the east coast being
temporarily used instead.
Source: New Jersey Telegraph
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