This just came down the wire from STRATFOR.  I would hate to think of the
possibility of National Guard troops knocking heads  or busting caps if the
longshoremen don't come to the table on this one.  Anybody know the inside
scoop (not CNN's version) on this?:

Port Standoff: If No Resolution, Then What Next?
28 October 2002

Summary

The long-running labor dispute at West Coast ports could re-emerge as a
year-end crisis. But with the buildup for Iraq likely to be in full swing
and the economic outlook still fragile, the Bush administration will have
little patience for a strike. If one cannot be avoided, then Washington
could be forced to take more drastic measures.

Analysis

Shipping companies have asked the U.S. Justice Department to hold members of
the dockworkers' union in contempt of court for intentionally slowing the
pace of operations at West Coast ports, the Seattle Times reported Oct. 24.
As part of the complaint, shippers pointed to the fact that 194 ships were
waiting to be unloaded off the West Coast ports on Oct. 21, compared to 224
ships 12 days earlier at the height of a management lockout of dockworkers.

As the court-ordered "cool-down" period enters its third week, management
and labor are even further apart, and the docks are almost as clogged as
they were when U.S. President George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act
Oct. 9 to end the lockout at 29 ports. Considering that the ports'
operations are vital both to a buildup in Iraq and to the U.S. economy,
Washington simply cannot afford another crisis precipitated by failed
negotiations, which likely would result in a dockworker strike. Fearing the
eruption of a new crisis in late December or early January -- at what could
be the height of an Iraq buildup -- the Bush administration will exert
extreme pressure on both the labor and management sides to settle