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White House urges dockworkers and East Coast ports to settle differences amid strike threat
White House officials on Thursday called for dockworkers and port operators to return to the bargaining table as time runs short to avoid the first major strike at shipping terminals along the East and Gulf coasts in nearly half a century.
Negotiations between the the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents ports, container carriers and other industry players, have been stalled since June. But the labor dispute has taken on added urgency as thousands of dockworkers are preparing to walk off their jobs when their contract expires at midnight on September 30.
“Senior officials from the White House, Labor Department and Department of Transportation are in touch with the parties and delivering the message to them directly on being at the table and negotiating in good faith fairly and quickly,” White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson told CBS News.
Experts warn that even a short work stoppage at the 36 ports that could close in a strike could temporarily disrupt supplies of food, auto parts and many other products, potentially driving up costs for consumers. The cargo gateways handle about half of all goods shipped in containers in and out of the U.S.
A strike would reduce U.S. economic activity by between $4.5 billion and $7.5 billion for every week it continues, according to analysts at Oxford Economics. The investment research firm estimates it would take up to a month to clear the backlog of shipments that pile up while ports remain shut.
Still, the overall hit to the U.S. economy would likely be modest, amounting to only 0.1% of the country’s annualized gross domestic product, Oxford said in a report. Economists also note that such a dip would be reversed once the ports reopen for business.
Mitigating the potential fallout is that the nation’s economy and supply chains are more resilient than during the depths of the pandemic, Patterson said, adding that a task force formed by the Biden administration in 2021 to address supply-chain challenges is ready to respond in case of a prolonged strike.
In the meantime, the Biden administration has been meeting with retailers, grocers, manufacturers, agriculture exporters, shippers and ocean carriers to learn about the potential impact on their businesses and their plans.
Although President Joe Biden could delay a strike by seeking a court order under the Taft-Hartley Act for an 80-day cooling-off period, the White House has underlined that it isn’t weighing such a move.
“We’ve never invoked Taft-Hartley to break a strike and are not considering doing so now,” Patterson told CBS News. “We support collective bargaining. We believe it’s the best way for both American workers and employers to come to a fair agreement — one that benefits the workers in a way that reflects the success of the companies.”
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Wisconsin school shooter was in contact with California man plotting his own attack, court documents say
The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California whom authorities say was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
A Southern California judge issued a restraining order Tuesday under California’s gun red flag law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man. The order requires the man to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.
Carlsbad is located just north of San Diego.
According to the order, the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, the Wisconsin shooter, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives. The order doesn’t say what building he had targeted or when he planned to launch his attack. It also doesn’t detail his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.
CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.
Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”
On a Madison city website providing details about the shooting, police disclosed Wednesday that two guns were found at the school, but only one was used in the shooting. A law enforcement source previously told CBS News the weapon used appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.
Barnes told the AP that he did not know how the suspected shooter obtained the guns and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes told the AP.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school that offers prekindergarten classes through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.
The Dan County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the two people killed Wednesday as 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara.
An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.”
West’s exact position with the school was unclear.
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