Port strike coming… not going to be good!

#101
What do you think union , non profit leaders and ceos make? Ceos making 500m a year by killing American jobs and not even paying taxes on it as they take profits overseas.

900k a year / 45k workers is $20 per worker per year in dues. Not even a $1 per pay period. If he gets them what they are asking for...he deserves a huge raise and bonus.

If you were worth that..someone would pay. Now the shipping companies get to see what a happy longshoreman is worth while they lose $5B a day..

The jealously in here is pathetic.
 
#103
Average American has no idea how much automation is available if the INCENTIVES for a company to automate are there. I saw a copper mine in Chile run remotely from a city far away. If you can do a job 100 yards away then it can be done 1 mile away, 100 miles away, etc.
 
#104

Your job is only worth so much before companies start looking for alternatives. They are getting greedy and greed is what will ultimately cost them their jobs. I am all for American jobs and keeping Americans working but they also have to be reasonable and realize what is at stake here. They are going to over play their hand.
 
#107

And where they draw that line will determine their future from what I can see, they aren’t reading the tea leaves very well. If I were the companies involved, I would at this point tell them to pound sand after declining a 50 percent increase in wages.
 
#112
These ports and ships are FORIEGN owned. They want to get rid of US workers...automate the ports and send all the profits back to Europe, the middle east and Asia.

The money comes from money that would otherwise go overseas and not even taxed by the US gov. It's not taxpayer money. It's so some greek faggot in a banana hammock in mykonos only makes 3 instead of 4 billion in profit this year.
 
#115
It's called confidence. He knows he has everyone by the balls and they will win. They have ALL the leverage.

There are a ton of western US longshoremen all posting support for them. They are pissed they let the shippers win and lost so many jobs.
 
#116
He's got the economy by the balls. But if he keeps squeezing the government can also fuck back just as hard or even harder if push comes to shove.

It isn't going to be too hard to sell congress (and our new president) on changes to the NLRB if enough pain is inflicted on the economy by guys making 6 figures, with great benefits, job security, and that just turned down a 50% pay increase. From where I am standing it looks like he is deep into FAFO territory.
 
#118

Yes asshole, the line gets drawn when a worthless fat mobbed up Union asshole demands $200,000 plus a year to do the same job a Rumba can do for 7 dollars a day in electricity.

I'm voting for hiring illegal immigrants until the automation is done. Then training the illegals to do the job full time. After all, unions supported the flood of cheap foreign workers 100%.

Reap what you sow you commie fucks.
 
#119
"Meanwhile, Daggett — has worked at the ILA for 57 years and took the helm as president in 2011 — raked in $728,000 in compensation last year from the ILA.

He collected another $173,000 as president emeritus of a local union branch, according to labor department filings.

He lives in a 7,136 square-foot house valued at $1.7 million on a 10-acre lot in Sparta, New Jersey, according to Zillow and NJ Property Records."

$900,000 per year as President of the union. Sounds like the union pays way too much in dues.
 
#125
The increase in their wages is not even a drop in the bucket of total costs. One shippers owner took a 4 billion dollar Christmas bonus and bragged about it.

They are using decrepit ships with foreign slave wage crews. They don't pay taxes. The bridge in Baltimore that was hit...was due to these practices. They do not have to operate to US coast guard standards within US waters. So we are letting dangerous foriegn owned vessels destroy our infrastructure crewed by incompetent foriegn crews and extract wealth from our nation and you guys are bitching about American workers getting a piece of that pie.
 
#127
I just got back from the store and the place was packed...on a Tues at noon.

There was no place to park and people were filling their baskets like it was the day before Thanksgiving.

I guess people are stocking up, again.
 
#128
They can't do shit. You don't understand the situation.

A. The dem gov won't do shit becuase they are in the unions pocket.
B. The gov can pass whatever law they want...you can't force people to work...or be productive. Meanwhile ships and cans back up for weeks or months. Importers and exports will go insolvent.
C. Automation takes time. Right now the US economy is bent over a barrel. There is no option. There aren't enough scabs or workers in the nation to take over these jobs that won't result in further delays...which will be just as if not more crippling to the economy. A bottleneck is just as deadly as a work stoppage.

These guys will get everything they want becuase they have ALL the leverage. You think they give a fuck what you think? Their jobs are at stake. If you need to feel pain for them to preserve their way of life....oh well. You would do the same as most would. The only question is how long it takes. The union is not going to blink. So it's up to the shipping companies to decide how much pain they want to inflict before they meet their demands. If it was me...every week the demand goes up 10%. Fuck you pay me.

 
#131
Yes it does come out of my pocket, and your pocket and everyone else's with the cost of goods. Who do you think absorbs those cost increases, or taxes, or tariffs? I'm not genius, but I understand the companies are not cutting into their own profits to pay workers more money. I'm sure you bitch and complain about the costs of everything you buy unless you are wealthier than most and can absorb said rising costs. Or are you one of those people shouting tax the rich and they need to pay their fair share? Simple economics at play here.

Since I actually live here (SoCal about 20 miles south of Long Beach) I know the cost of housing, gas, utilities, food etc. So yes I understand what wages are and how much a job should pay for the work involved. Negotiating your own personal pay is very different than a union. The union is collecting dues from the people in said union. I'm sure its a percentage and not a flat monthly fee, or that monthly fee is based on percentages. They make more when their "workers" make more. I am not anti union but we have to be realistic and think logically.

I am not opposed to the workers getting wage increases either. So tell me why would you need a 77% increase in your pay over 5 years if the standard cost of living increase (non Biden inflation) was 2.7-3ish% per year? 6 years = 77% inflation? And 77% on top of the already high wage per hour and OT? Help me understand the math here. I suck at math but I can figure this out. I understand it compounds but not 77% worth.

And also most items coming into ports are from places outside the country. So that money already departed the country. Most things inside the country are transported by rail or truck. It's faster and more efficient/cost effective than going by boat. A lot of the transport freighters are owned/operated by foreign crews and countries. Once again money leaving the country. So please stop using that as your argument.
 
#134

Its hard for me to fathom that 39-50 bucks an hour is considered a "high wage" today.

I think the 77% is a reach personally, but hey, dream big. Cause if you go in to negotiations and lay out your real number you are willing to settle for you will end up with 10% less, at least.
 
#135
The ILA isn't the first to hate the idea of automation. Unfortunately, we all know it's inevitable.

"The Luddites were members of a 19th-century movement of English textile workers who opposed the use of certain types of automated machinery due to concerns regarding decreased pay for textile workers and a perceived reduction of output quality. They often destroyed the machines..."
 
#136
Looks like the Teamsters are getting involved, saying there will be no pickett lines crossed. And a "stay the fuck out of it" to the current admin.



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#138
Most of the shipping is merchant marines and they are more ship crew. Every port has dock workers I don't even think there is a MOS or rating for rigging/dockworker in any bramch. I would bet it's contracted out if it's a gov owned facility.

My great grandfather started as a stevedor( longshore man )in baltimore then merchant marine and was a master during ww2 and was direct commissioned into the navy running liberty ships across the Atlantic. Had 2 shot out from under him by uboats. They still have one of 2 remaining liberty ships you can tour in port of Baltimore. I took my dad there on his birthday this year...was pretty cool. Alot of my family were longshoreman back In the 20s to the 80s. The stories....you would not believe. Epic.
 
#140

I was involved with several retrograde projects while active. All we did was prepare for shipment. Locals loaded/unloaded the trucks and transferred to the holds. Ship’s crew supervised what happened on board. As I recall, the army oversaw the dock on Okinawa. Not sure about mainland.

The nips have a work ethic that would shame the average union employee.
 
#142

Again, it seems the drop in the bucket would be the smart move. Are the owners attempting to follow the congressional business model? At the end of the day, they don’t even cover the drop.
 
#143
Trump should do to the Longshore unions what Margaret Thatcher did to the striking coal miners.

Every year at the start of winter the greedy union bastards would go on strike and demand exorbitant pay at a time when most people were experiencing severe economic hardships. They figured they could just keep screwing over the country because hey people have to stay warm.

Thatcher said, no we will not be blackmailed.
Society cannot properly function if each group keeps holding everybody hostage for greed.

So everybody was cold that winter.
Come spring, the coal miners unions were done for and the nation moved on.

Longshore union folks like to think of themselves as thugs and gangsters and their own mafia.
Well they need to be shown that the country will put up with some significant pain for a bit in order to get rid of them for good and never be threatened by their greed again.

Plus it would be a great way to destroy a prime democrat fundraising and corruption base.
 
#144
Yeah...that was sort of my point but I guess I didn't make it very well. By being fairly simple machines, it would not take a great deal of training to keep them tuned up and running good...unlike that Boston Dynamics thing which would probably take years and years of circuit knowledge, coding and such just to be able to troubleshoot. In my opinion, being able to troubleshoot is the real skill, then hand it over to a mechanic or instrumentation/electronics tech...maybe a welder...it's not like all the jobs are gone but there will be fewer and maybe higher paying.
 
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#145
Wasn't all that long ago when the west coast longshoremen did the same.
I have personally witnessed the long lines of ships off the SoCal coast.

It looked kinda like this......but on a massive scale that a person has trouble comprehending.
Imagine this view amplified X 1000........

 
#146
And as far as foreign ownership of the ports, how about eminent domain? Would that be possible?

The rebuild them with the necessary automation to streamline the operations and just like that, the greedy go they way of the $20/hr McDonald's worker when they get replaced by a kiosk.

Just spitballin' here.
 
#150
Well shit.
I got really upset. I thought this thread was titled Pork Strike coming.

I just ran to Sam's Club and bought 4 cases of bacon and 3 cases of Jimmy Dean's sausage.

I can hunker down with toilet paper and other stuff running low because of a port strike but bacon is non-negotiable.
 
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