Eric Schultz

Seeking an end to a protracted labor dispute that's led to costly delays in West Coast shipping, President Obama has decided to intervene, the White House announced Saturday. At the president's request, Thomas E. Perez, secretary of labor, will travel to California to "meet with the parties to urge them to resolve their dispute quickly at the bargaining table," according to a statement issued by Eric Schultz, a White House spokesman. Perez will try to mediate a settlement between an association of the major shipowners of the West Coast and the union of longshoremen who unload those ships.