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Article: Lockout Disaster Averted.
- Article from:
- The Oregonian (Portland, OR)
- Article date:
- October 13, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Oregonian. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Oct. 13--The longshoremen's lockout of 2002 may be remembered in the Northwest as the perfect storm that was not.
Conditions seemed ripe for economic disaster: high unemployment, a flat economy, an approaching holiday retail season and then -- a shutdown of West Coast ports.
Yet in reality, the shutdown of 29 West Coast ports appears to be a glancing blow off the side of the regional economy, rather than a direct hit. While several thousand port workers and employees in related industries lost 12 days' wages, almost no instances of business disasters can be found in the region, and cumulative costs appear to be low.
"I think in the whole scheme ...