ATTENTION: Reporters covering port strike and closure

16 October 2002
Contact:
(510) 642-3734

WHAT:
Although longshore workers are back on the job at West Coast ports following an 11-day lockout, many issues remain unresolved, including how to sort through the bottleneck of cargo left from the shutdown; whether orchestrated worker slowdowns will arise; if contract negotiations will succeed; how the lockout will affect the economy; and how the crisis might affect political campaigns.

The following is an updated list of experts from the University of California, Berkeley, who can address the latest issues in this ongoing situation.

The scholars below are from the campus's Haas School of Business, School of Law (Boalt Hall), Institute of Industrial Relations, Institute for Labor & Employment, Department of City & Regional Planning, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, and Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.

BACKGROUND:
LABOR

Jennifer Chatman
Professor of management at the Haas School of Business
Expertise: Organizational behavior, industrial relations
Office phone: (510) 642-4723
E-mail: chatman@haas.berkeley.edu

David Feller
John H. Boalt Professor of Law, emeritus
Expertise: Labor relations. Can address Taft-Hartley Act, how courts might deal with a potential work slowdown or other violations of the injunction.
Phone: (510) 642-0629 (office) and (510) 524-8908 (home)
E-mail: fellerd@law.berkeley.edu

David Levine
Professor of economics and industrial relations, associate director of the Institute of Industrial Relations, editor of the journal Industrial Relations
Expertise: Wage determination and worker participation in the United States and international settings.
Levine is author of "Changes in Careers and Wage Structures at Large American Employers," "Carve-outs in Workers' Compensation Programs in California Construction," "The American Workplace:

Skills, Pay and Employee Involvement," "Working in the Twenty-First Century: Policies for Economic Growth Through Training, Opportunity, and Education," and "Reinventing the Workplace: How Business and Employees Can Both Win."
Phone: (510) 642-1697
E-mail: levine@haas.berkeley.edu

Peter Olney
Associate director of the Institute for Labor & Employment at UC Berkeley, former director of organizing for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
Expertise: Taft-Hartley Act, international issues related to the dispute, economic impacts of the dispute.
Phone: (510) 643-7931
E-mail: polney@uclink.berkeley.edu

Harley Shaiken
Professor specializing in labor and the global economy
Expertise: Negotiations during the 80-day period; possibility of a work slowdown or another dispute; potential for the situation to be an issue in political campaigns; how workers and employers view President Bush and his decision to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act.
Phone: (510) 642-9678 office
(510) 559-8218 home
E-mail: hshakien@socrates.berkeley.edu

George Strauss
Professor emeritus at the Haas School of Business and the Institute of Industrial Relations
Expertise: Labor relations
Phone: (510) 526-1792
E-mail: strauss@haas.berkeley.edu

ECONOMY

Stephen Cohen
Professor of city and regional planning and co-director of the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE)
Expertise: Financial impacts of the West Coast port strike
Phone: (510) 642-2808
E-mail: scohen@uclink.berkeley.edu

Dwight Jaffee
Willis Booth Professor of Banking, Finance, and Real Estate, and co-chair of the Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics at the Haas School of Business
Expertise: Impact of strike on the Northern California economy
Phone: (510) 642-1273
E-mail: jaffee@haas.berkeley.edu
See also http://haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/jaffee.html

Larry Karp
Professor of agricultural and resource economics
Expertise: Potential impact of port negotiations on international trade policy. Can speak about general impact of strike on agricultural industry.
Phone: (510) 642-7199
E-mail: karp@are.berkeley.edu

Cynthia Kroll
Economist at the Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics at the Haas School of Business
Expertise: The California economy and most its vulnerable sectors including agriculture, retail, modern heavy manufacturing facilities and the computer industry.
Phone: (510) 643-6112
E-mail: kroll@haas.berkeley.edu

TRANSPORTATION AND SHIPPING

Carlos Daganzo
Professor of civil and environmental engineering
Expertise: Logistics of transportation systems and of handling the backlog of goods now that workers are back.
Phone: (510) 642-3853
E-mail: daganzo@ce.berkeley.edu
He's easiest to reach Monday-Thursday.

Peter V. Hall
Graduate student researcher at Institute for Industrial Relations and a PhD student in city and regional planning
Expertise: Auto shipments through West Coast ports, impacts of new technologies on road traffic around ports and rail.
Phone: (510) 643-7094
E-mail: phall@uclink4.berkeley.edu