White House left with few good options as dockworkers walk out

After tens of thousands of dockworkers walked off the job at midnight, the Biden administration is confronting the complicated politics – and limited toolkit – of a work stoppage in the home stretch of a critical election season in which the economy has taken center stage.

After tens of thousands of dockworkers walked off the job at midnight, the Biden administration is confronting the complicated politics – and limited toolkit – of a work stoppage in the home stretch of a critical election season in which the economy has taken center stage. For weeks, Cabinet-level officials across an array of agencies have been keeping close tabs on the negotiations between the International Longshoremen’s Association and a consortium of companies managing ports along the East and Gulf coasts. White House officials on Friday met with representatives from the consortium, the US Maritime Corporation, to encourage the association to stay at the negotiating table. When it comes to brokering a potential deal, labor experts say the White House has just two tools: Using the bully pulpit and invoking the Taft-Hartley Act, which would force the longshore workers to get back on the job. President Joe Biden has sent a clear message that he has no plans to do the latter. “No,” Biden told reporters Sunday when asked whether he would intervene in a potential strike. “Because it’s collective bargaining, and I don’t believe in Taft-Hartley.” Breaking the strike would be a politically dangerous move for Biden as his vice president, Kamala Harris, runs to succeed him in the Oval Office. Without taking that move, there’s not much else the White House can do. “The administration is using its bully pulpit, and has been for a while,” says John Porcari, who served as the White House supply chain czar under Biden. “The federal government can help at the margins and can certainly encourage the parties to come together, but they have to do that on their own.”