Catherwood LibraryILR School

Despite the International Longshore and Warehouse Union's fears that the Justice Department was being less than impartial in its investigation of management allegations of a union orchestrated slowdown at West Coast Ports (see WIT for Oct. 30, 2002), the agency announced yesterday that the union was not in violation of a federal back to work order banning job actions. Based on evidence submitted by both the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), the Justice Department found that the union's directive to members to follow all safety rules and refuse overtime did not justify a recommendation that a federal judge penalize the union, and decided that both sides bore some responsibility for the post-lockout slowdowns (see WIT's for Oct. 25, and Oct. 24, 2002). Issued on the same day that the head of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service called the union and the PMA back to federally supervised negotiations---that yielded a breakthrough on technology implementation (see WIT for Nov. 4, 2002), but stalled over pensions (see WIT for Nov. 6, 2002)---the Justice Department's decision is a major victory for the ILWU.