Biden won't force ports to resume operations by invoking labor law

As dockworkers strike at seaports on the East and Gulf Coasts, the Biden administration has affirmed it will not use a federal labor law known as the Taft-Hartley Act to intervene in the strike. 

"We have not used Taft-Hartley, and we're not planning to," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told FOX Business' Edward Lawrence on Tuesday.

Unionized dockworkers at 36 East and Gulf Coast ports went on strike at midnight, Tuesday, amid an impasse in negotiations over a new contract with a group representing port employers.

The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), which represents 45,000 dockworkers, began its first strike since 1977 after its six-year contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents port employers, expired Monday night.

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President Biden, whose administration has tried to facilitate talks between the two sides, has said that he won't use a federal labor law known as the Taft-Hartley Act to intervene in the strike. Under that law, Biden could take action that results in an 80-day "cooling off" period for negotiations to resume while workers are back at work.

Enacted in 1947 as an update to the National Labor Relations Act, the Taft-Hartley Act contained a variety of updates and reforms to labor laws and dispute mechanisms – including a new provision for settling labor disputes that create a national emergency.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), the Taft-Hartley Act authorizes the president to intervene in a labor dispute after making a determination that there is a "threatened or actual strike or lockout."

Last month, the White House signaled that President Biden has "never invoked 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 is the president going to be involved, the president's message has been very clear," Jean-Pierre told Lawrence. "The president's going to continue to be regularly briefed. And we are urging USMX to come to the table to present a fair proposal to ILA."

U.S. seaports from Maine to Texas will be impacted by the strike, and analysis by J.P. Morgan estimated 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.

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FOX Business' Eric Revell contributed to this report.