Business: Labor: Dead Days on the Docks

FROM San Diego to Seattle, the giant cargo ships bobbed idly in outer harbors, their flags announcing origins as distant as Japan and the Soviet Union. Inside their holds lay cargo amounting to hundreds of thousands of tons, some of it already spoiled, consigned to destinations all over the U.S. In all, some 150 freighters have been rendered a Pacific mothball fleet by a strike of 15,000 West Coast dock workers. Last week the walkout moved into its third month, and there seemed little hope of an early settlement. "It takes a month to get everything shut up tight," says Union...