45k dockworker's about to strike
 

this would have a serious impact on the auto industry (among others) :eek2:

I heard about this, and its supposedly going to negatively drive down the national economy by 4-5 Billion a day!

First, this is what happens when workers are taken advantage of. Sometimes they have no choice but to strike...thank goodness for the ILA Union. Second, the country got through the collapse of the Baltimore Harbor Bridge without a national recession.....and that shut down much of the East Coast shipping for over a month. We'll get through this, too.

Good ol’ inefficient unions…

Just going to throw a couple of quotes out there from an AP Article:


"Top scale" according to the current labor agreement is automatically reached at the sixth work anniversary.

Quote:

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Analysts say the union’s initial demands included a 77% pay raise over the course of a six-year contract. Daggett, the union president, said sizable pay raises would make up for the inflation spike of the past few years.

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No doubt dock workers provide a valuable service and should be compensated for it. But $354,000 per year sounds a little rich for semi-skilled labor, even if they are working a lot of overtime.

They also want a complete ban on any kind of automation, to ensure that the docks don't become too efficient.

This all makes me think of the second season of "The Wire".

at some point docks somewhere will become much more automated and dock workers at other more 'labor intensive' docks will get a payoff to go away (retire). florida will be happy to welcome them so they can spend all that money. :D

I wonder if this similar thing happened to horse carriage drivers (or other jobs that were obsolete) when automobiles were invented.

A bunch of screaming and useless half-wits upset that the world has left them behind because they failed to adapt. Now they want to hold the country hostage? They can all burn in hell.

Personally, I agree with the anti-automation part of the strike more than the demands for more wages. Job security, especially in this day and age, can be far more important than the actual wages. And automated/computer-controlled devices can be hacked.....time and experience has, sadly, taught us that lesson.

Well, it's now official...as of midnight, on with the strike.

First strike, BTW, from the ILA since 1977....that was the better part of 50 years ago. That shows how serious the stakes are right now.

The Union limits the amount of port workers on purpose to ensure a $39k worker makes $100k-$200k with overtime. The union has held US ports back and are incredibly inefficient.

They want job scarcity, increased yet outrageous pay for unskilled labor, and the threat of further automation removed.

What we need is fair pay for more port workers so overtime is the exception and not the norm and a plan to automate and modernize. None of which will happen as this is another corrupt area of business that American is saddled with.

Maybe they should have gone to college and bettered their skills so they wouldn't be competing with automated gates for employment.

Our economy shouldn't be held hostage by the least educated and least useful members of our society.

Agreed but there are obvious reasons why that's not the case/how it plays out.

apparently dock crane operators make $300k a year and they want a 77% increase, massive retirement contribution increases and no automation.

bring on the automation and fire the lot of them!