Rift Between West Coast Carriers, Workers Worsens With Ports Now Shut For President's Day Weekend
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [The Associated Press] by Justin Pritchard - February 12, 2015
Troubles on the West Coast waterfront are getting worse.
Amid an increasingly damaging labor dispute, 29 West Coast seaports that handle about $1 trillion of goods annually will be mostly closed four of the next five days.
The announcement came Wednesday from the association representing companies that operate marine terminals where dockworkers move goods on and off massive oceangoing vessels, eventually transferring the containers onto trucks or trains for distribution nationwide.
Companies said they won’t hire crews to load or unload ships Thursday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday — when they’d have to pay Presidents Day holiday or weekend wages to dockworkers they accuse of slowing work to gain leverage in contract talks...
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