> [via WSJ.com]
>
> Bush Will Seek Injunction
> To Stop Port Shutdown
>
> Associated Press
>
> A board of inquiry hand-picked by President Bush told the White House
> Tuesday that a labor standoff between West Coast longshoremen and
> shipping companies has no chance of ending soon, handing Mr. Bush
> ammunition to seek the injunction.
Bush was of course required by law to appoint a fact-finding commission to investigate the "stand off" (actually, the offensive) before he could move onto anything more severe. He appointed the commision about 36 hours ago. It's like Ed Sills of the Texas AFL-CIO said here recently: "The move [to seek a court injunction] came after Bush's fact-finders, who apparently had been finding the facts before they were officially appointed, reported back to the White House in less than 24 hours." If only all bureaucracy was this expedient.
Also, this WSJ article notes that this could galvanzize labor, "traditionally a Denmocratic Party ally." If this is going to galvanize supporters of, say, a Democrat like Dianne Feinstein, who pushed for a heavy handed solution from Bush, then labor doesn't have a chance.
The LA Times of today or yesterday also had a piss-poor editorial wherein the writer stated "It's hard to feel sorry for longshoremen who make up to six figure salaries," or something to that effect. Leaving aside the question of whether we should instead "feel sorry" for their bosses, who make billions more than that, I don't think we should forget either that the Bush-appointee-stacked Dept of Labor likewise supported Bush's recent anti-labor moves. Labor's allies are actually few and far between right now, which is a shame, since the ILWU is one of the few unions that really deserves 100% of the left's time and support right now.
Brian
--
"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents." - Arthur Schopenhauer