On one side you have the International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA), which represents 50,000 East and Gulf Coast dockworkers. On the other side you have the U.S. Maritime Alliance, or USMX, an organization bargaining on behalf of the port owners, container owners and corporations. In a few hours the ILA is scheduled to strike against USMX.
A late breaking development:
[SOURCE] – [pdf Specifics]
I am not sure how this is going to eventually end but suffice to say at least a one-week strike is built into the current dynamic. I doubt any last-minute negotiations will stop that from happening, but you never know.
Below is a video reflecting the firm position expressed by ILA President Harold J. Daggett, who represents the interests of the workers. There are many who may not like the tone or expressed strike intent of Mr Daggett; however, given the nature of modern corporatism as it stands, what workers have been doing hasn’t been working to change the dynamic.
🚨This clip from an interview with ILA President Harold Daggett is worth a watch! These are the people that you describe all the time that have the power to shut the country down and they are not fucking around here! Ironically, he sounds just like George Carlin. #ILASTRIKE pic.twitter.com/cAp946zIUZ
— Chase Freedom (@ChaseFreedom10) September 30, 2024
Here is the full video interview:
My wife was telling me the main reason for the strike is that the ILA said no to automation technology that was written into their previous contract and USMX broke that contract by investing in automation tech. ILA said automation has cost lots of jobs and it’s actually slower due to automation breaking things and non automated manpower is much faster and more efficient.
And the crux of the problem? WE DON’T PRODUCE OUR OWN GOODS IN THE USA! We have “out sourced” everything to China, including our Steel.
If we were a producer, we would not be at the mercy of anyone. Congress and Washington DC have put us in a dependency situation.
We need to open the lines of production, drill our own oil, refine our own oil, mine our own coal, grow our own food and make our own clothes.
Right on, Jann!!! This union guy is no different than Joe Biden or KH or any of the rest of these power hungry freaks that pretend to lead us. True leaders would never have allowed the systematic dismantling of our manufacturing base that’s been in full swing for at least 30 years.
Screw em all!!! We need to use our own natural resources to make our own products, period!!! Stop offshoring! Work it here!!! What do you call a country that exports all of its natural resources? A colony!!! I thought we moved past that stage long ago.
When Bass shoes offshoed back in the early 90’s…that should have been a wake up call…GH Bass I think got liquidated…
An American heritage company since 1876…based in Maine….
Dexter, too – I hate Chinese shoes.
New Balance does not even make a complete shoe start to finish within the United States anymore. Their shoes are now assembled with varying levels of imported parts and materials.
it’s all in the name
Some of the highest tech materials for running shoes are patented and produced in the far east.
I wore made in USA NB for 15+ yrs. I need to wear high tech runners for bilateral ankle issues, even though I cannot run.
Until a shoe store manager suggested I try Brooks [Beast] in 2014. My [untrained] mother saw me take a few steps in them and noticed that I walked better in them. Been buying them ever since.
Manager told me that I should buy what is best for my feet/ condition regardless of where it is made.
BUT … I’ve seen unions and been a (forced) union member myself. So was my husband (construction trades).
The closed-shop unions in CA ENCOURAGED the hiring of illegals, until it ruined the trades in CA, and made crappy, shoddy construction.
Our small union in the airline I worked for, were a subset of the mechanics union. They took our dues and used those $$$ for THEIR contract negotiations, and when it came time for us, there was no money. So we went independent, and had our lives threatened by big goons who thought they were entitled to screw us.
Then our new union brought in tacky, thuggish, awful people to be our negotiators. Frying pan into the fire.
Produce it in the US…..
while inflation persists
while still importing the raw materials
while still paying exorbitant labor costs
This is a real problem no matter the angle it is looked at. Consumers get screwed in all of this no matter what.
I just watched interviews with union workers. Their number one issue is automation. They are essentially arguing for barriers to entry into their respective markets.
This is not going to end well for anyone.
All due respect, your response is missing one caveat: go domestic so long as trading partners are using government support subsidies, theft, etc., to realize non-competitive gains.
As a consumer, I’m not interested in padding profits for domestic or foreign producers.
Inflation exists and you let it destroy your purchasing power. These guys strike to recover theirs.
Your exorbitant labor costs are their competition against slave labor and multinational globalist exploitation of it.
Raw material import is fine, as long as trade is fair, and not controlled by globalist fascists. Bilateral trade agreements and tariffs work here.
I don’t let anything exist. I’m a consumer who knows how specific markets function – particularly energy.
At the end of the day I don’t really discriminate among foreign/China capital controls, domestic subsidies, or American companies/labor exercising market power – through their corrupt/bought agents in Congress or otherwise . They can all eat whatever.
You seem to think organized labor is making a mistake here. I don’t see that. They are doing what you aren’t. You meekly accept inflation. They don’t.
Can I buy your crystal ball?
You have no friggin clue what I do with my time and energy.
For the reading impaired: I’m looking at this from the consumer point-of-view. The Union luddite was very clear – no automation.
And labor is making a mistake. They think they’re tapping into memes that gained currency when AI was first discussed as a long-term threat to employment. They should focus exclusively on cost-of-living, inflation, family impacts, etc. If they want structural change go get the damn capital and invest themselves.
This will backfire, if it goes on long enough, when hurricane victims experience even more suffering, medical supply disruptions lead to deaths, prices for all of us rise, food supplies are disrupted, etc. Hopefully that won’t happen.
Again, the problem lies with both gov’t and big business symbiosis. Cliches and glib slogans don’t change that existential reality.
The collusion of Government and Corporations is Fascism.
That isn’t my definition. It is the definition of the ‘Father of Fascism’ Benito Mussolini.
@ phillip jeffreys: “from the consumer point of view”
Nah you just care about yourself, the rest of the country and our future (no crystal ball needed on this) can go to hell.
America must rebuild its industry and that means we consumers are just going to have to take some pain. Cost of living, family impact, etc., are only going to worsen until this fundamental situation is rectified. Relying on China for the precursors to our most important drugs and medicines – crazy! Rebuilding industry has to start under the conditions that prevail now, they’re never going to get any better.
Then go talk to the pharma companies who manufactured many of our meds in Puerto Rico until 2006, when their special tax exemptions ended. Those manufacturing facilities are still there, & could be revived.
People are dying left and right due to their unhealthy state and there are no youth that can cope with a nominal greeting in the work place much less actual work. It is either radically scale back or import more workers who will be in our shoes in 30 years. Swallow your pride and make alliances with family to take care of each other.
Yes, you’re admitting it again. You claim organized labor is wrong here, when they are simply resisting the illegitimate forces destroying their purchasing power and household income, forces which we then can assume you meekly accept. You have it “right”, then, in your mind. But not in theirs and mine.
Then let the labor unions take that inflation problem TO THE CREATORS OF IT, the US GOV’T… Not the consumers.
The greedy unions COULD mobilize their members all over the US to go on a national strike against the gov’t (including the vile govt unions), BUT NOOOO … They have to take it out of OUR ALREADY EMPTY consumer pockets.
No, they take their concerns about income to the guy who signs their paycheck. That’s how it’s done. If you have concerns about inflation, you should address that directly, as they are.
Expect more of this, btw. It’s a good thing. Things are going to get worse, but better to look to root cause, and avoid planned distractions and diversions like this ILA guy, who the fascists want to wipe out, as Hitler did.
So, please tell us we should “unmeekly” do about it, other than try to vote in better people.
Avoid the planned distractions set in front of you. Eschew the gaslighting. That’d be your 1st step. If you ever complete it, you then can identify who was trying to distract and gaslight you. If you ever do that, you can identify why they did it. If you ever get there, then maybe you’ll recognize the Uniparty exists, and act accordingly.
Right now, you seem to be their supplicant. So start at the beginning.
Ever notice the Amish are never affected? Yet they’re a tight knit family!
We have forgotten what the Amish know from the Bible: The Old ways are the best ways. They are nearly self sufficient, family and community are the key to their safety. They know survival methods that most of our society has forgetten.
I saw an interview with a run of the mill coal miner, and he was complaining that he was used to his $95,000/year plus generous benefits, and that his high-cost labor made the world go around. This was 15 years ago or more.
I was aghast at his entitlement attitude. These are people who do manual labor, at a time when market labor for what he did was maybe $25/hour, but his head was full of “I’m owed”, same as those GM employees that recently demanded a 40% pay raise, with no increase in productivity.
Yes, make stuff here, but until these unions stop filling their members’ heads with inflated ideas of “what they deserve”, it won’t work. Unions price themselves out of the market.
Household income has been stagnant forever, so clearly your assertions are false.
My father’s business was underground and mining, and I was u/g at 2 years old. You best reconsider all your notions about all such work, and workers. These are highly skilled folks working in a highly mechanized environment, like most tradesmen today. You seem to think like Pelosi in her gated community filled with cloistered Uniparty Ivy League humanities drones.
I watched as unions put the final nail in the coffin of my awesome company, Pan American Airways.
It had a “prestige board of directors”, most of whom knew nothing about aviation, gov’t-subsidized international competitors, bonded fuel, exorbitant landing fees, airport surcharges, or having to deal with stockholders in a poorly-designed deregulation that made no sense for an int’l airline.
It had high-dollar labor, none of which unions believed the company was telling the truth about imminent bankruptcy.
So ended the era of a great aviation powerhouse, savior of the Berlin Airlift, creator of airlifted postal mail, starter of small country airlines all over the world … Because the unions wouldn’t take a short-term austerity to save an American institution. I hate them.
Pan Am died because they were stupid.
It takes on average, 7 attempts to leave one’s ‘domestic’ abuser.
Do you realize these people move over 56+% of all imports coming into the US and earn $21-35/hr. So for all those commenting on what they don’t know what they’re talking about, do a little research and realize its the bare backs of American workers who make this country work. And how many Americans still believe Walmart grows banana, brown cows produce chocolate milk and farmers are lazy sons of bitches who rake in govt subsidies?
….Comment from twitter..
“Listening to the news this morning makes me sick.
These longshoremen going on strike are already making six figures,
the crane operators making 300k.
They want a 77% raise, no automation at the port in Alabama.
They were offered a 50% raise, but didn’t take it.
We’ve had probably the worst storm on the east coast in history,
terrible inflation. Sorry, shame on them. Period. “
…….a little research….
SUNDANCE – Time again for your PRIMER on this topic with the pictures…..
The same plan was used against Great Britain after world war one. The end result was the Great Britain diminished, and the United States became the premier world power. It appears that those in charge have a plan to bleed us to death with a thousand cuts and pass the torch to another country, probably China.
there’s a video of Wilbur Ross on Foxnews . com website. he was in shipping, himself. he explains the union is asking for $5/hr increase every year for the next 6 years. he says that normally, contracts are only 3 years long. he didn’t mention the automation, although I also heard that was an issue. the fox interviewer is taking the workers’ side in the interview, but Wilbur explains very well why their demands are ‘not logical’.
They are making up lost ground. Their demands are logical when these corporations raked in billions and billions of dollars during the pandemic. What did the corporations do but give their billions to democrats.
As far as I know the “corporations” aren’t paying their wages or benefits. Correct me if I’m wrong. But you will be paying for those things. 50% pay raise is really quite astonishing if they get it. Even a $5 an hour pay raise is quite extraordinary. Do you think everyone else’s wages will go up that much? Highly doubtful. Ultimately we are heading for Weimar Germany if this kind of thing keeps up.
We all deserve 50% raises because of government over spending that created the inflation. We don’t need to be giving money to every country in the world. Inflation is a tax and it hurts the lower rungs on the income ladder the most. It also makes retirement impossible. If we don’t stand up for higher wages, they will just send it overseas anyway. Perot was right, we should have retained ALL our industry here, then, we could buy decent washers and other appliances instead of the junk that is out there now. Yes, there strike will create a hardship for all citizens and the poorest will get hurt hardest, but, it WILL get the attention of the people running the country for a minute and maybe convince them to change course just a bit. Cause all of us need 50% raises and COLA for SS needs a truly hefty bump as well, my food bill has doubled.
Importing all these goods creates a bottleneck at the docks and the ability of politicians to take advantage of concentrated money. This would not be the case if manufactured was spread across the whole US.
I don’t accept this argument one iota.
What leads anyone to think that America will produce cheaper, competitive quality products? It’s not enough to simply transition from imports to domestic production. You have to rid the entire business colossus of woke, DEI, gov’t/biz collusion, regulation, etc. You have to actually produce at a competitive marginal cost (in competitive markets). You have to produce airplanes that don’t disassemble in air, pharmaceuticals that don’t effect more damage than they address, food supply that isn’t routinely plagued with poisons, autos that don’t require endless recalls, etc., etc., etc. You have to move big biz off short-term profiteering and back into long-term capital investing. You have to end the exercise of market power (price fixing) and the financialization of all assets.
The problem, as endlessly highlighted on this site for years now, is BOTH gov’t and big biz.
It all starts with a commitment to rebuilding our industries. That will provide the impetus for the curtailment of woke and dei, because it will become too obvious to deny that that is the only way to be competitive and produce quality products. Short-term thinking, government overregulation, financializing of assets will all have to be dealt with but never will be until we as a nation decide to become an industrial power again.
Exactly!!!
The US used to do all that. It can again. We do have to void the EPA crap. The reason the shuttles were losing so much debris during launch is that at some point they changed the paint formula for the boosters and shuttle. The new formula was to EPA standards and less toxic, but also less sticky. So, more tiles and debris fell during launch adding danger to an already dangerous activity.
I think the shipping corps must invest in technology / automation to keep up with competition. I get that workers see that as a job killer. But, it also provides ‘better jobs’ for some workers, who will monitor and maintain the new equipment. It would seem those jobs would pay more, and be something a human can do for longer than a rough, physical job that they are fighting to keep.
Port of Baltimore is already getting ugly:
Don’t mess with my coffee!
He’s the Devil Incarnate. Period.
This is a stellar example of socialism at work. Regardless of the benefits the unions are first and foremost political entities.
Sure as there are six ways to make a seven lift up this rock and you’ll find the dnc.
What’s funny is after the last 15 to 20 years watching this clown show I couldn’t care less.
Illegals will have to pass a security clearance for the TWIC…doubtful they can do that?
Am remembering Reagan and the air traffic controllers…it could get interesting….
Yes, but the ATCs Reagan hired were still Americans.
Dockworkers Strike Supply RisksBased on the search results, here are the predicted shortages that may occur as a result of the dockworkers strike:
These shortages could have a ripple effect across the economy, particularly during the holiday season. According to J.P. Morgan, a prolonged strike could cost the economy $3.8 billion to $4.5 billion per day, with some of that recovered over time after normal operations resume.
Keep in mind that these predictions are based on the information provided and may not reflect the actual outcome of the strike. The severity and duration of the shortages will depend on various factors, including the length of the strike, the ability of railroads to compensate for the lost capacity, and the flexibility of suppliers and manufacturers.
Vegetables not needed when you slaughter a steer and live on beef. That and fat. Support your local farmer, buy a couple of freezers and a solar generator.
Sal is an excellent source of information about maritime shipping. Worth your time.
Pretty good.
Missed a key point however.
Shipping industry across classes has become a capacity shortage mess. There simply hasn’t been much shipbuilding capacity added for over a decade. Meanwhile, fleets age and global politics have restructured routing or outright placed assets at elevated kinetic risk.
The part that was missed: shipping price/volume curves tend to look like commodity curves: big highs followed by years of lows. The last time the industry experienced highs there was substantial new ship/shipbuilding infrastructure built. The market then swooned downward – many of these companies have taken a bath. Lotta bankruptcies, not much capital risked on investing in new shipbuilding infrastructure. Predictably, what has happened post sanctions has been consolidation with companies buying existing assets rather than investing in new infrastructure – memories can linger for a long time.
Seeking info….any Treepers out there that can speak to the smaller and inland ports? Like the Port of Davenport? Port of Joliet? I think Indianapolis has a port designation, too…
From MN to MS, there are 41 ports and harbors along the Mississippi River…
Am wondering if they are involved with the same union…?
been saying this for at least the last 10 years……..food….water…..guns……ammo………make sure you have plenty of each
Essential spending.
This also helps explain Trumps “bring manufacturing home” stance.
I don’t know. Trump and the ILA president have a long relationship. Doesn’t this hurt the current administration and globalist supply chain, including squeezing the sleepers they’ve put among us? Any chance this is a white hat thing?
This will offend the “port workers fighting back on inflation” folks, but they should hire scabs. Give all the Haitians and venezuelans something constructive to do.
It seems that common practice is for dockworkers with a union cards to hire lower paid workers to do their own jobs and pocket the difference.
Start at 30:48 and watch to 36:36.
Cut out all nonessential spending. We have the power. We will not be subject to inflation if we cut back drastically. We can bring these corporations to their knees so even they can’t support the illegals.
The ILA states that foreign shipping companies are profiting at the expense of American workers, charging skyrocketing fees for container shipments.
“They are now charging $30,000 for a full container, a whopping increase from $6,000 per container just a few weeks ago. In just a short time, they went from 6K to 18K, then 24K, and now $30,000. It’s unheard of, and they are doubling their $30,000 fee by stuffing the same container from multiple shippers. They are killing the customers.”
The ILA is demanding a 77% pay raise over six years and protection, in face of astronomical cost of living increases under the Biden regime, and job insecurities prompted by automation.
IMHO, they should not be working against automation. They should be looking for ways to improve their lot by improving automation. Automation can be a win for all.
They are totally correct about the need to double wages to keep up with inflation, an insidious tax by government policies.
The last time these guys went on strike was 1977. Gee, I wonder who was in the White House then?? Would that person and his policies have any similarity to the current occupant and leader of the free world?? Just asking
This is why MAGA wants manufacturing in US.
And I LOVE this guy… totally tough and no BS.
👊👊❤️❤️🙏🏻🙏🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸
Back in the 50’s, ILA was found to be a criminal enterprise (see the movie, “On the Waterfront”). By the 60s, the goal of the union was to prevent containerization of freight by whatever means necessary (such as imposition of the “50 mile rule”).
“I think I am with them on the automation”
hmmm
“When you hear about jobs that don’t exist anymore,
it’s easy to think it’s something negative,
and it’s often reported that way in the news too.
But often it can be a good thing,
as you won’t have to do some of the more repetitive, tiresome, labour intensive, or downright unpleasant jobs that you might have been offered years ago
.Remember too that when some roles are no longer required,
a whole new suite of careers may be created
along with the latest developments and changes to our lifestyles and environments.”
…..jobs that don’t exist anymore….
Switchboard OperatorsOriginally replacing telegraphists, these workers connected callers to the number they wanted to connect with right up until the 1960s.
This was my first job after graduating High School! 1967
Sundance twitter posts re the strike…
The pay raise rate requested seems a bit high to me…but I totally understand the no automation demand.
Automation eliminated some jobs.
In the pre-container days, these people had a hard job, but we’re not craning cargo nets into ship holds to be manually loaded and unloaded anymore. Everything comes by container nowadays and a lot of the world is fully automated for this process. This now an artificial effort.
I don’t believe that we should be protecting them any more than we’ve protected any other job or profession – though I am pure MAGA when it comes to bringing jobs back to America.
Airlines used to have a full crew that included Flight Engineers, another highly paid (for the time) profession, and they were eliminated by automation – and that has an impact on safety, unlike a dockworker who watches containers be moved.
There a plenty of jobs that no longer exist due to automation.
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