U.S. West Coast ports contract talks break for night without settlement

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shipping executives and union leaders for dockworkers at West Coast ports ended a third day of contract talks presided over by the U.S. labor secretary late on Thursday without reaching a settlement, but planned to meet again on Friday, a source close to the situation told Reuters.

Labor Secretary Tom Perez joined the talks in San Francisco at the behest of President Barack Obama, who has come under growing political pressure to intervene in a dispute that has led to months of costly disruptions in cargo traffic at the ports, reverberating through the trans-Pacific commercial supply chain.

(Reporting by Sarah McBride in San Francisco; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Michael Perry)