Dive Brief:
-
Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren says more retail executives must get in touch with leaders in Washington to help resolve the ongoing labor dispute at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.
-
Lundgren said Friday, speaking at Bloomberg Year Ahead: 2015 conference in Washington, DC, that he’s growing increasingly concerned about the impact the strike will have on retailers during the holiday season, saying: “This is the wrong time to slow down work.”
-
Lundgren and the National Retail Federation have written President Obama about pressuring both sides to come to an agreement, and Lundgren said he urged Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO Doug McMillon to also get involved. McMillon has since been in touch with White House senior advisor Valerie Jarrett.
Dive Insight:
At this point, the West Coast port strike has got the top guys in retail worried enough to pressure the top guy in Washington to do something about it. There’s precedence for U.S. Presidents to get involved — in October 2002 President George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act to pressure dock workers back to work — but in this case dock workers are technically still working. In fact, some of the delays are due to other circumstances, although the once-friendly negotiations do seem to be breaking down and a strike seems more likely than ever.
Macy’s CEO Lundgren says that the department store has already seen delays in inventory due to the strike, and that further delays could be disastrous for the economy.
“There’s a big strike potential on the West Coast right now, and it’s Christmas,” he said Friday. “It’s a holiday period — we need the inventory to get through the system. This is the wrong time to slow down work.”
