Bush Invokes Taft-Hartley Against Locked-Out Dockworkers, First Use Since 1971

President George W. Bush obtains a federal court injunction under the Taft-Hartley Act on October 8, 2002, ordering West Coast dockworkers back to work after an employer lockout shuts 29 ports handling $300 billion in annual trade. The Pacific Maritime Association, representing shipping and terminal companies, had locked out 10,500 International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) members on September 27 during a contract dispute over technology implementation. Bush’s intervention marks the first presidential use of Taft-Hartley since Richard Nixon’s 1971 order against dockworkers, and notably aids employers who initiated the work stoppage rather than striking workers.

The dispute centers on employer demands to eliminate union jurisdiction over new technology positions, particularly workers who monitor cargo tracking systems. The ILWU, remembering how containerization eliminated tens of thousands of docking jobs in the 1960s-70s, sought protections for workers as ports automated. Rather than negotiate, PMA locked out workers, calculated that economic pressure would force government intervention on employers’ terms. The strategy succeeds: Bush frames the lockout as threatening national security and the fragile post-9/11 economy, while barely mentioning that employers chose to close the ports.

The 80-day “cooling off” injunction forces workers back without resolving the underlying dispute, but shifts bargaining leverage decisively toward employers. The union ultimately accepts a contract that phases out protections for technology-related positions. Bush’s intervention demonstrates that Taft-Hartley’s “national emergency” provisions effectively function as management-friendly strikebreaking tools, since the economic disruption from any major work stoppage—whether caused by strikes or lockouts—triggers presidential intervention. The episode shows how labor law asymmetry persists: when employers lock out workers, the government forces workers back to work; when workers strike, employers can permanently replace them.