Excerpts from the Puget Sound Business Journal:

West Coast ports may be slower, but they will not shut down during the holiday season.

That’s according to Craig Merrilees, spokesman for the International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union.

“Nobody wants to shut down the ports,” Merrilees said. “Nobody on either side of the negotiating table is talking about shut downs.”

When asked about whether shut downs could happen, the PMA wasn’t as staunch as the ILWU in its response.

The last time ports along the West Coast shut down was in 2002, when the union was locked out. The ILWU hasn’t gone on strike in decades.

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