The president could invoke a 1947 law to try to suspend the dockworkers’ strike. Here’s how

Read the latest on the port strikes: How port strikes could affect retail prices and shortages in the U.S. WASHINGTON (AP) — Some manufacturers and retailers are urging President Joe Biden to invoke a 1947 law as a way to suspend a strike by 45,000 dockworkers that has shut down 36 U.S. ports from Maine to Texas. In addition to authorizing a president to intervene in strikes, the law banned “closed shops,” which require employers to hire only union workers. Taft-Hartley also barred “secondary boycotts,’’ thereby making it illegal for unions to pressure neutral companies to stop doing business with an employer that was targeted in a strike. Presidents can target a strike that may “imperil the national health and safety” The president can appoint a board of inquiry to review and write a report on the labor dispute — and then direct the attorney general to ask a federal court to suspend a strike by workers or a lockout by management. During this period, management and unions must ”make every effort to adjust and settle their differences.’’ Still, the law cannot actually force union members to accept a contract offer. Presidents have invoked Taft-Hartley 37 times in labor disputes According to the Congressional Research Service, about half the time that presidents have invoked Section 206 of Taft-Hartley, the parties worked out their differences. Biden has said he won’t use Taft-Hartley to intervene Despite lobbying by the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Retail Federation, the president has maintained that he has no plans to try to suspend the dockworkers’ strike against ports on the East and Gulf coasts. On Wednesday, before leaving Joint Base Andrews for an air tour of North Carolina to see the devastation from Hurricane Helene, Biden said the port strike was hampering efforts to provide emergency items for the relief effort. “The last thing we need on top of that is a man-made disaster — what’s going on at the ports.” Biden noted that the companies that control East and Gulf coast ports have made huge profits since the pandemic. “It’s time for them to sit at the table and get this strike done,” he said. William Brucher, a labor relations expert at Rutgers University, notes that Taft-Hartley injunctions are “widely despised, if not universally despised, by labor unions in the United States.” And Vice President Kamala Harris is relying on support from organized labor in her presidential campaign against Donald Trump. If the longshoremen’s strike drags on long enough and causes shortages that antagonize American consumers, pressure could grow on Biden to change course and intervene. Which means, Brucher said, that “Democrats really can’t afford to alienate organized labor.” ____ AP Writer Colleen Long at Joint Base Andrews and AP Business Writers Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York and Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://apnews.com/27c7eaa7b199fba1903a637eb6c7db0c