Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan yesterday said cabinet does “not want to be back here again” following a tentative end to a West Coast port strike. O’Regan did not explain his remark.

“The scale of this disruption has been significant,” O’Regan said in a statement. “The extent of it has shown just how important the relationship between industry and labour is to our national interest.”

“We do not want to be back here again,” said O’Regan. Negotiations “are the best way to prevent that,” he added: “But we do not want to be back here again.”