San Francisco — Faced with a judge's order to reopen U.S. West Coast ports, longshoremen and shipping companies now confront the mammoth task of heaving billions of dollars worth of idle cargo — from auto parts to bananas — back into the country's economy.

Workers may need as long as 2½ months to clear the backlog of goods caused by the 10-day lockout at 29 major Pacific ports. The labour dispute prompted U.S. President George W. Bush to intervene Tuesday and may have cost the fragile U.S. economy up to $2-billion a day.

The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping companies and terminal operators, said it would order workers to report to shifts that start at 6 p.m. Wednesday in most ports.

The announcement came hours after Mr. Bush became the first president in a quarter-century to use the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, which allows a president to ask a federal court with jurisdiction over the dispute to stop a strike or lockout.

Judge William Alsup then issued a temporary restraining order that expires on Oct. 16. Lawyers for both sides said they expect Judge Alsup to impose the 80-day cooling-off period as mandated by Taft-Hartley at that time.

A court-ordered truce would keep ports open during the crucial Christmas season, when retailers rely on imported goods to stock their shelves. The October-December period normally accounts for 40 per cent of retailers' annual sales.

"This nation simply cannot afford to have hundreds of billions of dollars a year in potential manufacturing and agricultural trade sitting idle," Mr. Bush said. "We can't afford it."

West Coast ports were closed late last month amid a bitter labour dispute that centers around the implementation of waterfront technology that unionized dock workers believe would cause job losses.

The lockout caused immediate fallout.

The ports, which handle more than $300-billion in trade annually, account for more than half of all containerized cargo moving in and out of the United States.

The most often-cited study estimated total harm to the economy from the labour strife at between $1-billion and $2-billion a day. The study, prepared for the shippers' association by Martin Associates of Lancaster, Pa., estimated the cost of a 10-day stoppage at $19-billion.

"If this work stoppage lasted another two weeks, the disruptions could be enough to push us back into recession," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com.

The lockout forced automakers to charter expensive cargo planes to airlift parts to stalled assembly lines and left millions of dollars worth of U.S. crops, meat and poultry in danger of spoiling on the docks.

Pacific Maritime Association officials applauded Mr. Bush's move. "I believe he acted in the best interests of the country, the economy and our national security," association president Joseph Miniace said.

Labour leaders, however, criticized the decision. Organized labour considers Taft-Hartley an anti-union mechanism for resolving disputes.

"No president has ever been on this side of management this overtly," said Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO.

The last time a president sought to intervene under Taft-Hartley was in 1978, when a court refused President Jimmy Carter's request for an 80-day cooling-off period in a coal miner's strike, but ordered miners back to work under a temporary restraining order.

The port lockout was called after contract talks with the 10,500-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union broke down last month over the question of how to modernize West Coast ports.

The union says new technology will cost its members some jobs now, and wants new positions created by the technology to be union-covered. The shippers say the union should not dictate who controls the jobs.

News that the lockout was suspended was cheered by Dole Foods, which has about 8 million pounds of bananas ripening at the Port of Los Angeles. The firm will push for its 241 containers of fruit to be among the first unloaded, said Craig DeRecat, a company lawyer.