The Longshoremen’s union has authorized an East Coast and Gulf port strike this week. The unions demands are asinine.
Strike Set for Tuesday
Please consider Longshoremen’s Union Authorizes a Strike Starting Tuesday
A port strike on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico will go ahead starting on Tuesday, the International Longshoremen’s Association union said on Sunday, signaling action that could cause delays and snarl supply chains.
“United States Maritime Alliance … refuses to address a half-century of wage subjugation,” the union said in a statement. The United States Maritime Alliance, known as USMX, represents employers of the East and Gulf Coast longshore industry.
If union members walk off the job at ports stretching from Maine to Texas, it would be the first coast-wide ILA strike since 1977, affecting ports that handle about half the nation’s ocean shipping.
A strike could stop the flow of everything from food to automobiles at major ports – in a dispute that could jeopardize jobs and stoke inflation weeks ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
For months, the union has threatened to shut down the 36 ports it covers if employers like container ship operator Maersk and its APM Terminals North America do not deliver significant wage increases and stop terminal automation projects.
The dispute is worrying businesses that rely on ocean shipping to export their wares, or secure crucial imports.
The USMX employer group has accused the ILA of refusing to negotiate.
Asinine Demands
The New York Post spotlights the ILA Demands
International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) on Sunday said its 85,000 members, along with “tens of thousands of dockworkers and maritime workers around the world,” will hit the picket lines Tuesday “and strike at all Atlantic and Gulf Coast ports from Maine to Texas.”
The union is demanding higher wages and a total ban on the automation at ports regarding cranes, gates and moving containers in the loading and unloading of freight.
An analysis by J.P. Morgan estimated a strike would cost the US economy up to $5 billion per day.
Ban on Automation
Yeah, right. And let’s go back to building houses without cranes too.
The proper response is to automate everything.
The Benchmark Capital’s Bill Gurley reacted on social media to the union’s demands, writing that the federal government should step in if the union seeks a total ban on automation.
I agree. This is very similar to the PATCO setup in which Reagan told the workers to go back to work or be fired. There is one difference though. PATCO was a public union.
The similarity is shutting down ports holds a nation hostage, not a manufacturer.
“Outlawing the effective use of technology will unquestionably doom our nation,” Gurley wrote. “We will become globally uncompetitive.”
You can’t force people to work. But you can’t have luddites disrupting half the trade US trade either.
This could get interesting, especially the responses from Trump and Harris,
Timing! Timing is all important.
Just before election.
Harold Daggett Longshoreman video circulating is priceless.
No response needed from Trump.
Biden Harris own the current situation.
His administration and his fellow mobsters believed there would be no consequences to shutdown of economy and then printing money and borrowing money running huge deficits to fund spending.
Disrupting interstate trade is against the law.
Their pay does seem to be on the low end.
Many of their members would probably be better off without a union.
The part of unions that people don’t talk about as much is how much they harm their best members. A high achiever has to wait and bid based on seniority, just exactly the same as the person who comes in just sober enough to not get kicked off the job most days.
Sucks for them to be stuck with a union.
In Oct. 2018, the highest wage bracket in the ILM was $35. Today it is $39. That’s a total wage increase of 11.4% in 6 years.
BS inflation rate from 2018-2024 = 308.64/246.336 = 25.3%
A 12.8% raise ($5/hr) doesn’t seem unreasonable to me.
You would have to review the “Entire Compensation” package, to accurately discuss details at those levels. We are talking over $80,000.00 base pay +? Med. Dent. Retirement, Vacations, Investment Matches Etc.
Hard to say…
Mish old bubbles/ dots charts showed that highly skilled workers earn $55/$85/hour PLUS benefits. They strike bc those who earn $250/$500K/y might lose their job to AI.
Thinking differently, their ask seems to cause some greater good. Wish they are successful.
No one is holding the country hostage, other than few Billionaires and their interests. They are the main class actors in the world of Neo feudalism.
While I agree with your premise, I think the time to worry about that, was before we gave away so much of our own Manufacturing.
I just learned recently, that according to Brookings, the U.S. barely breaks the Top 15 in National Manufacturing. That’s pretty sad, if true, and I have no reason at this time to doubt them. We couldn’t possibly add much, as we don’t currently do much of our own.
What’s even sadder, is that we actually Manufacture a higher % for Worldwide use, than our National Needs.
So “NO” it appears that’s completely out of the question, at this point in time, and the foreseeable future I would have to assume. We would need to build Plants, Outfit those plants, and find the Labor for those plants.
1. Build Plants? We can’t even build Housing for Our Own Citizens…
2. Outfit Plants? We would need to buy a whole lot of goods from other Countries to do so. We’re broke last I checked.
3. Find Labor? Hahahahaha, yeah ok. We can’t find people to sell fast food, and you want them to WORK in Manufacturing? Hahahaha… Good luck with that!!
Layoffs might be next, but BLS will discover more invisible workers in the labor market. The 10 millions immigrants will overpower layoffs and hours of work.
Layoffs are often part of strikes. Unhappy Union Leaders, for whatever reason, and the orders for the members show up, and a strike is born…
Why shouldn’t the people who unload everything to our shores that we buy be well payed. The parasites on Wallstreet who orchestrated offshoring our are.
Higher DXY is bad for SPY
For ACWI, an ETF for the 100+trillion dollar equivalent global equity index, today is day 2 of a 10-11 day 4th decay fractal ending 10-11 October 2024 and part of a 5 August 2/4/4/3 week base decay fractal series equivalent to a 5 Aug 8/17/16/2 of 10-11 day daily decay fractal series.
What caused the crash in 1929? Too much debt, too much over-investment and over-valuation and a market saturation and depletion of the population of potential equity buyers. 3 September 1929 was the then peak equity valuation and 27 Sept in 2024.
The same 1929 underlying reason for the peak valuation and crash of the asset-debt macroeconomic system exits at present in 2024.
The US eastern dock strike looks like a significant exacerbating true true and unrelated explanation for a crash. It will certainly be used politically espousing that America needs a strong man to curb the potential damage that longshoremen can do to America’s more dependent importing economy.
Maybe the strike will constitute an October presidential election surprise.
They built the pyramids without modern equipment … But then again, Pharoah was not faking economic numbers.
100,000 slaves working for 20 years to make a pile of rocks does not seem like good economics to me. At least the Romans got roads and aqueducts for their efforts. The pyramids are a marvel of stupidity more than anything.
Trump Tells Union Workers He Hates Paying Overtime
Trump admitted to his rallygoers that he hates paying workers overtime and always got other workers so he wouldn’t have to pay for it.
Trump has always badgered workers, refused to pay contractors for services rendered, enjoyed bragging about stiffing workers, and now he openly mocks the entire working class with this moronic but highly informative diatribe.
You’ll notice how quiet his supporters are during his ramblings, until he makes wild claims with no actual plans that he’ll cut, cut, cut their taxes.
Is Trump in the room with you right now?
How can you MAGA bend-over alter boys in his cult, down vote something he literally said?
“Hey hard working people, I hate paying you people overtime, so I found ways around it.”
“All I want is your vote, so do it or your country is destroyed”
This doesn’t count the multitudes of small business he screwed over
Of course he doesn’t like paying overtime, as no Owner of nearly any business should imo. It means something, and that could be mismanagement of inventory, mismanagement of workers, mismanagement of time available to do so, Etc.
Point being, you’re paying for mistakes and/or mismanagement. Neither worthy of your money.
Even really efficient businesses need to use overtime on rare occasions due to something like bad weather causing a delay in shipping and the extra pay is well worth it to avoid further production flow issues and potential quality issues.
Of course, but that’s the exception, and not the rule. Companies still don’t like it, but those type of disruptions are factored into the data, as they are a unique natural occurrence that happen.
Blast it man, call in the Pinkerton’s!
Savannah GA stevedores strike, Helene death toll, higher oil prices, layoffs, DJT plunge ==> are good for Trump.
The demands are asinine but the timing is genius. There is no way the
Biden/Harris administration will let this fester. They don’t have the balls to force them back to work so the strikers are going to get paid. Good for them. Bad for US.US trade deficit with China is the largest. Stevedores strike, Long Bitch clogging, low Panama canal water and Yemen on top of the RE fiasco might a recession in China. A lower trade deficit is good for DXY.
Looks like it going to be a repeat of the 1954 movie, ‘On the Waterfront’ with Marlon Brando as a longshoreman fighting against Lee J. Cobb.
“I coulda been a contender…”
how many humans would it take to lift one of those shipping containers?
AI can do it!
The zionists struck Yemen oil terminals. Blame the zionists.
I blame the dockworkers.
Hopefully the dockworkers do better than the pathetic contract UPS workers agreed to.
Total raise for UPS workers for 2024 was 75 cents per hour, no matter their wage level. Funny I never heard the MSM do a report about that “huge raise”.
There was no COLA because they have worthless COLA language that doesn’t even kick in unless inflation exceeds 3.5% or so.
Driving a truck is easily to learn while dock work is demands more expertise and experience.
Highly skilled stevedores unload containers from a ship before unloading them on a truck. Highly skilled workers unload containers in the port parking lot. Without a fat envelope containers drop. Millions are lost. Precision targeting AI can load/unload containers supervised by a few stevedores.
The striking stevedores disrupt interstate commerce. That’s against the law.
By the way, I think the union workers are going to win, how long it takes I don’t know but here’s a key reason in the link below. I’ve mentioned this a million times: too many boomers retiring, too few young people and they have an entirely different work ethic. Chaos will reign in 2030’s when it all comes to a head.
https://www.thehrdigest.com/employers-are-firing-gen-z-graduates-and-dont-plan-on-hiring-more/
“According to a survey by Intelligent, 75% of companies reported that some or all of the recent college graduates they had hired this year were unsatisfactory. Companies are quickly firing these Gen Z workers because they feel these employees are “unprepared for the workforce, can’t handle the workload, and are unprofessional.”
During recessions airline tickets usually drop sharply. Boeing is important co to our national interest : F-15, Apache, missile, spy & civilian planes… Bombardier sold their aviation gem to Airbus.
What does this have to do with the union winning?
Most of this fight is about jobs being eliminated in the near future. If anything, eliminated jobs *helps* with your idea of retiring boomers because it means we need fewer workers to get the same productivity.
One word: LABOR!
The ports need the labor, everyone needs the labor. The quality of workers from the Gen Z (the replacement for the boomers) is not working out.
Several people here have said, “Just hire scabs!” which begs the question, where are those people going to come from especially since young people don’t want those jobs.
Yes, over the long term automation will win, that’s a guarantee but we’re not there yet and time is running out for “robots, automation and ai” to “fix” all the labor issues.
Try to think beyond today, tomorrow and the following week. I was even very specific about 2030!
It gets even worse MPO45v2, Most of the investment class can’t even produce a sentient thought for the betterment of humanity.
Gen Z must be well indoctrinated by the leftist education system.
Sell Baltimore and NJ ports to China,
Should they sell Boeing to China too? So Boeing workers will strike, port workers will strike. Looks like airline prices are going to go through the roof soon. Better buy those Xmas flights now!
I’m gonna hitch a ride on Santa’s sleigh 🙂
Stevedores strike oil terminals
Fire them all. This is going to solve the problem with negative trade balance. It will also speed up onshoring of manufacturing. If the government stops running deficit it will not create inflation. OK, I know. Trump is not Miley, Trump loves debt. And when federal administration declares that keeping living standard is matter of national security then there is no chance to change anything. Or may be … ? Could Marines from overseas basis come home to handle containers in ports for few months? Their service at home could be more important than watching TV on oversea bases.
I sure hope FJB and Camela join the picket lines like they did for the UAW. Layoffs by Stellantis are starting as a result. Also Ford moving production to Mexico. More to come. By joining the picket lines they will for sure garner a lot of support. LOL
The MSM never did any “fact check” on the Boeing workers pay. Instead they painted the workers as greedy and ungrateful for rejecting 25% raises.
Well, it turns out those workers at Boeing have been getting 1% raises forever. To the point they have fallen so far behind inflation it’s actually sad.
What about those truck drivers who got those “huge raises” and are now making “six figures”. Haven’t heard a “fact check” out of the media about those filthy rich truckers in a longgg time. Why could that be?
the (smart) ports should go ahead with plans to automate & just hire scabs.
let the unions wither & die. problem solved.
The blood-suckers will just have to get used to lower profits.
The cost of everything will be going up after their raise.
The ILA is reportedly asking for raises of $5 an hour, per year, which would be an immediate 12.8% pay hike on the current top pay of $39 an hour. Repeating that $5 an hour increase each year would result in raises totaling 77% during the life of the contract.
Go big or go home, baby! Yeah, that might just add some to inflation.
So the threat of recession, aĺl our pet project wars, mass migration, Helene AND now this?
Not reported here, but heard elsewhere is that the ILA is demanding raises of 70-some % over their six year contract. No mention but if they are smart they will demand a wage adjustment each year to keep up with inflation, like other unions such as the UAW have won.
The longshoremen’s union has a monopoly grip on handling goods from ship to shore. They are backed up by solidarity with foreign longshoremen, who won’t unload any ship over there unless it had been blessed by our longshoremen. Likely ditto going the other direction, they won’t load any ship that doesn’t go to a unionized port here.
Because of that monopoly they get high wages and “job-protection” that few other unionized workers get. It acts like a tariff, redistributing money from us to them, and per Economics 101 the quantity of goods handled is smaller than it could be. Organized labor would like the whole economy to be like that. Organized economists say that is not possible.
Joke: We have just had and endured hurricane Helene. Now hurricane ILA is about to hit and it’s time to hunker down and do without some more.
I had to stop reading after:
“The union is demanding higher wages and a total ban on the automation at ports regarding cranes, gates and moving containers in the loading and unloading of freight.”
Simply Silly Stupid! Many of these Union Leaders see the writing on the wall, as far as wages rising after the recession gets officially called (one more reason why it hasn’t imo.). So they are asking/begging for money now, before it’s too late, and layoffs start hitting and no way they will get one then!
They are already paid overpaid wages, for the jobs that they used to perform, but no longer due, is my understanding. Hence the layoffs, because these automated companies are way over staffed (See EV Manufacturing cost Vs, Yesterdays, and you will understand it), but still getting paid for things being done for them.
Please somebody correct me if I am incorrect in my assertion, but it’s what I hear, am told, and see articles stating. I understand Unions, as I come from a family of them.
Yep … the greedy union is going after the greedy corporation.
Interesting that the Union could extract even higher wages by cutting staff; that’s how wages got so high already (Union received a portion of the containerization productivity gains over past 50 years).
Getting a longshoreman job is like winning the lottery. Set for life. Good for them!
You said: Interesting that the Union could extract even higher wages by cutting staff; that’s how wages got so high already.
I understood the Heads of Unions, as they get paid no matter the headcount, but I was wondering why many workers are going so heavy on it. Many once gone, lose their raises, and wages, so to speak.
If I understand what you’re saying, it’s the last ones in, as the first ones out, and the ones left get a raise. Makes sense, as the larger number is in the latter crowd. Looking out for there fellow workers…
I get it though…
Let’s be perfectly honest here. These unions aren’t Luddites. At least not in the true sense of the word. They are selective Luddites (only in very narrow circumstances when it directly benefits them). One could argue whether it’s in thier best interest to strike or not, but that’s largely irrelevant. They will do whatever they deem to be in THEIR best interest in that moment and to hell with the rest of us. I’m not arguing for or against a strike just calling like I see it. I accept that I have zero control over such matters so the only thing to do is to prepare accordingly. I stocked up over the weekend. Did you?
replacement workers then robots are needed. I’m not against unions but collective bargaining and closed shops are dead wrong because they create union monopolies.
Cross a longshoreman picket line at grave danger.
Sure, let’s grab some new immigrants to operate this place … how hard can it be?
https://media.istockphoto.com/id/1058640800/photo/southern-californian-ports.webp?s=2048×2048&w=is&k=20&c=YPqFHInbhtHr8EXd9sLtwmDfdPQrIwkjU0Y47il_F38=
They’ll be on strike until after the election. Many other people will be laid off. This will help Trump as the economy will take a hit and inflation will significantly increase.
Did you take into consideration, the .50 – 1.0 BP potentially coming in October? Just curious…
The fed will have to increase rates if inflation goes up.
“Will have to” Hmm.. Are You sure?
We don’t have money for the ports. It all goes to Ukraine and the migrants. Sorry 🙁
I wish we had a Leader that fought “For America”…
I hear the generation before me consistently say,
‘I am glad I will not be around to see it (the demise the future brings).
My thoughts in reply are:
‘ Fortunately we will all be around to see it’.
IT. Is coming SOON!
Longshoreman strikes are an incentive to reshore manufacturing.
of course one needs ‘intelligent’ people to make this happen
and we all know MERIKA no longer has many
also like how both Trump and Harris-Bite-me keep using Tariffs to ’cause’ even more inflation and empty shelves
It’s not just imports that are affected, it’s also exports not going out.
The strike is an extra incentive to further crush the union by automating away much of the jobs so that future strikes matter less because less cargo is affected.
Could we also share here what the Unions want in terms of increases? Are they WANTING increases to keep pace with Inflation OR are they simply standing in the way of “PROGRESS.”
Please help us with comments, folks, if you think that A.I. will also be considered the monster in the room when the effort to automate takes EVERYONE’S jobs, such as taking on CLIENT SERVICES CALLS with BOTS (how’s that working out for you?).
I called a company four days ago and NEEDED HUMAN ASSISTANCE and never got through. The BOT did not understand “AGENT” or “CLIENT SERVICES PERSON” or any other combination of COMMON ENGLISH TERMS for an effing PERSON!
I finally resorted to sending AN E-FAX to real people who then understood that I was about to cancel a LARGE ACCOUNT (My family office) and THEN I got a call and was not near my phone and missed the callback…luckily the guy left a CELL number.
I explained the issue and he said, with LUDDITE NEARLY in the Language, “Get used to it Sir, I am gonna lose MY job to inane bots! This is the future and WE are all getting prepared to lose our jobs.”
But if the ports are shutdown for 30+ days then empty shelves across all the stores in America and some/many will take a financial hit. Do you need to have a fully employed team at your store if you have half the stuff to sell? This *may* translate into an opportunity for trump to harvest all those unemployed renters not working during this time.
I’m well stocked up on the usual suspects that get ravaged during these times and more. I have a well stocked pantry too. I recently bought puts on SPY in case things get ugly to A.B.P (always be profiting).
GOT TP?
Companies and Unions both need to operate in good faith. When they don’t, good luck. Mostly it is Unions that do not operate in good faith. Figure it out folks. Otherwise it could get ugly.
It’s going to get ugly because this isn’t so much about the money as it is about the jobs disappearing. I’d expect half or more to be automated away in the next decade or so.
They figured out the railworkers’ dispute – they’ll figure out this.
Automation has been happening for centuries and will continue for centuries more. This is the standard response. At best, the union will slow the automation. But it is inevitable.
The same thing happened with the hundreds of monster trucks in the oil sands. Drivers earned 100k -200k. They began automation of trucks in 2016. Today the vast majority of trucks are automated.
Biden and Harris will encourage negotiation, and if/when that fails, will impose binding arbitration.
Trump and Musk would delight in firing the longshoremen. Trump praised Musk for this approach during their X interview. . But I doubt he will say that publicly now, as he courts the union vote. Instead, he will criticize whatever Harris does and claim that if he was president, this never would have happened. Just like he says about everything.
Harris will demand that all the white longshoremen be fired and replaced by trans women of color. Henceforth, longshoremen will be called longshorepeople.
Whatever floats your boat Sentient.
He is a Politician after all, and they all do it. I guess, for me anyway, it comes down to what does it do for Me & My Family, and Friends, and Our Country (in that order, mostly).
The KISS theory works perfectly for that, so it makes it easy, and no stress about who to vote for. Also no judgement on anyone else and who they choose to vote for as well.
It works for Me!
I don’t vote.
I knew that, and certainly you’re right not to.
Thanks to Biden economics, almost every major Union has now gone on strike, for higher wages…
Well, they have to strike now, while the Democrats still have the WH.
As president of the local Luddite Council, I resemble Mish’s snarky comment. Seriously, demanding that automation be forsworn is beyond ridiculous.
They know that in the long run their jobs are doomed to disappear to automation as countless others have over the last century so they are fighting tooth and nail to hang on as long as possible.
The best they can hope for that the older guys make it to retirement before their jobs are automated away. This is one time the union needs to change the philosophy of last hired / first fired to be oldest forced retired as the jobs are automated away. That at least gives the younger guys a chance to keep the limited number of jobs that will be left when the majority are automated away.
Looking forward to the responses from Trump and Kamala’s handlers.
Unfortunately, Trump seems to handle himself. If he had any good campaign advisors, he would quickly get to western North Carolina to highlight Biden/Harris’ ignoring the damage that Helene wrought.
Kamala; “Where I grew up we had green lawns”
Trump; “Your fired”
Take your pick.
Middle class Kamala had two PHD’s for parents. Give me a break!