Senate Bill Aims to Strengthen Taft-Hartley Powers in Port Labor Disputes
Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., introduced legislation on June 4 to expand the Taft-Hartley Act, the benchmark labor relations measure signed into law in 1947, in order to deter future slowdowns and shutdowns at U.S. ports. Gardner introduced the Protecting Orderly and Responsible Transit of Shipments (PORTS) Act, S-1519, months after West Coast port operations ground to a halt over a contract dispute between port operators and labor (see 1502120049). The text of the bill isn’t yet public.
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The legislation would grant state governors Taft-Hartley power to convene a board of inquiry and force negotiators to reach a compromise in contract disputes that cause economic harm, said Gardner in a press release (here). Those powers are currently reserved for the president, said the release. “Once that board reports, governors could petition federal courts to enjoin slowdowns, strikes, or lockouts at ports in their states,” the release said. “The PORTS Act would explicitly include slowdowns as a trigger for Taft Hartley powers.”
Industry trade groups and customs broker associations applauded the legislation even before Gardner formally introduced it. "This approach correctly reforms the Taft-Hartley process to promote government action in response to the great harm these disputes cause our national economy," said dozens of compliance and trade associations in a June 3 letter to Gardner (here). "Most importantly, the bill clearly defines and expands situations in which Taft-Hartley can be invoked, preventing legal ambiguity from causing inaction.”
President Barack Obama dispatched Labor Secretary Tom Perez to intervene in the West Coast contract crisis, which pitted the Pacific Maritime Association against the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (see 1502160006). Obama, however, declined to invoke presidential powers to force the two sides back to work. The ILWU endorsed a new five-year labor contract in May (see 1505260013).