As a response to intermittent work slowdowns during labor negotiations at West Coast ports, the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping lines and terminal operators, is refusing to pay overtime to longshoremen this holiday weekend. The move effectively closes the ports for four out of five days, beginning Thursday, Feb. 12 (Lincoln’s birthday, which is a port holiday) and continuing through the weekend.

The move is the association’s response to what it claims are union work stoppages and slowdowns that have caused crippling delays and devastating economic losses.

In a press release earlier in the week, the association stated that weekend and holiday pay rates command a premium of at least 50 percent of the basic longshore wage rate. As a result, working hours on those days would be paid at between $54 and $75 per hour for longshore workers and clerks, and between $77 and $92 per hour for foremen.

“[Pacific Maritime Association] members decided that they will not conduct vessel operations on those dates, paying full shifts of ILWU (International Longshore and Warehouse Union) workers such high rates for severely diminished productivity while the backlog of cargo at West Coast ports grows,” the press release stated.

Association spokesman Wade Gates said, “Last week, PMA made a comprehensive contract offer designed to bring these talks to conclusion. The ILWU responded with demands they knew we could not meet, and continued slowdowns that will soon bring West Coast ports to gridlock. What they’re doing amounts to a strike with pay, and we will reduce the extent to which we pay premium rates for such a strike.”

There have been many calls from industry and government for an end to the labor impasse. On Feb. 12 at a Washington, DC, press conference a group of about a dozen West Coast representatives from Congress added their names to a growing list of people asking for swift resolution to the labor impasse.

Tom Nassif, president and chief executive officer of Western Growers Association, is on that list and issued a statement Feb. 12 calling for intervention. He said the conflict “is harming California’s exports of perishable fresh produce. This is of great concern for our state’s economy. In just the last quarter of 2014, the value of U.S. exports of fresh vegetables, fruit and tree nuts to major markets in the Pacific Rim region totaled over $5 billion.”

Gates of the Pacific Maritime Association said inbound ships have been waiting for up to two weeks for berth space because of the ILWU slowdown and then ships are delayed an additional week before being unloaded.

Nassif said that many produce suppliers are not even sending product overseas because perishable items cannot withstand these delays in loading.

“Western Growers has reached out to elected officials and regulatory agencies hoping to increase pressure on ILWU and PMA to bargain in good faith and to stop any work slowdown or lock-out, in an effort to get port activities back to as near normal as possible,” Nassif said.

He specifically called on “President Obama to become personally and immediately engaged to get both sides to end this dispute and quickly restore operations at our ports."

The contract between the 29 West Coast ports represented by PMA and the ILWU expired July 1. Work has continued under the old contract but work delays and stoppages have caused increasing problems for importers and exporters. In the port of Oakland, the third largest port on the West Coast, impartial observers say only about 75 percent of the normal number of ships are being unloaded on a typical day.

In 2002, after a port lockout closed all 29 ports, President George W. Bush did intervene and use the Taft-Hartley Act to reopen the ports and force a continuation of negotiations. Eventually a contract was signed. Some experts are saying that a complete lockout or strike is needed for President Obama to take similar legal measures.