Biden will not force ports to resume operations by invoking labor law

As longshoremen strike at seaports on the East and Gulf Coasts, the Biden administration has reiterated that it will not use a federal labor law called the Taft-Hartley Act to intervene in the strike.

“We have not used Taft-Hartley and have no plans to do so,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told FOX Business' Edward Lawrence on Tuesday.

Unionized longshoremen at 36 ports on the East and Gulf Coasts went on strike at midnight Tuesday amid deadlock in negotiations over a new contract with a group representing port employers.

The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), which represents 45,000 longshoremen, began its first strike since 1977 following its six-year contract with the US Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents it Employer in the portExpired Monday evening.

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President Bidenwhose government has sought to facilitate talks between the two sides has said it will not use federal labor law called the Taft-Hartley Act to intervene in the strike. Under that law, Biden could take action that would result in an 80-day “cooling off” period for resuming negotiations while workers are back at work.

The Taft-Hartley Act was enacted in 1947 as an update to the National Labor Relations Act and contained a number of updates and reforms to labor laws and dispute resolution mechanisms – including a new provision for the resolution of labor disputes that trigger a national emergency.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told FOX Business that President Biden will not invoke the Taft-Hartley Act to intervene in the port strike. (Getty Images/FOX Business/Fox News)

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), the Taft-Hartley Act authorizes the president to intervene in a labor dispute after determining that an “imminent or actual strike or lockout” exists.

Last month, the White House signaled that President Biden “has never called on Taft-Hartley to break a strike,” is not considering doing so now, and that the administration supports continued negotiations between the two sides.

“In your question to me about when the president will be involved, the president’s message was very clear,” Jean-Pierre told Lawrence. “The President will continue to be updated regularly. And we urge USMX to come to the table to present a fair proposal to the ILA.”

U.S. seaports from Maine to Texas will be affected by the strike, and an analysis by JP Morgan estimates that the daily cost of the port strike would cost the U.S. economy between $3.8 billion and $4.5 billion per day, as operations slow down.

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Eric Revell of FOX Business contributed to this report.