Justice Department prosecutors said Nov. 14 that dockworkers and shipping companies were both at fault for a drop in productivity at West Coast ports and neither side deserved enough blame to be sanctioned in federal court, The Associated Press reported.

The decision not to charge the union is a blow to the association of shipping companies that had asked prosecutors to intervene over accusations that longshoremen were deliberately slowing work as retaliation in the contract dispute.

The news was reported as federally mediated bargaining resumed between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association.