The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) has reached a tentative agreement with port owners and representatives of USMX, for a reported 62% contract increase in wages over six years.  As a result, the dockworker strike is suspended as negotiations on other aspects of the contract are extended through January 15, 2025.

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According to the New York Times – […] A 62 percent increase would raise the top longshoremen’s wage to just over $63 per hour at the end of a new six-year contract, from today’s $39 per hour. And at $63 an hour, the wages of East and Gulf Coast longshoremen would slightly exceed those that will be earned by West Coast longshoremen, who belong to a different union, at the end of their contract in 2027.

In the resumed talks, the issue of how much automation can occur at the ports could divide the sides. The union has also been pressing for improved retirement benefits. (more)

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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.

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First, my perspective for new readers.  I generally support private sector labor unions. I did not always support them.  I do not support public sector unions, nor the leadership of most labor unions in general who politicize their activity.  In our modern era, the baseline for organized labor to support the interests of their blue-collar workforce is valid.

Against the backdrop of the larger geopolitical dynamic, I would make the case that, similar to the solidarity movement of the mid 1980’s, organizing the general workforce is going to be the last-resort backstop measure to block ideological western government and corporate intentions.

Populism, nationalism and MAGA specifically, needs a unity alliance with organized private sector labor.

I also believe President Trump sees the looming importance of this relationship as made visible by his support for the Teamsters union during the RNC convention.

Consider what we witnessed and endured with the forced worker vaccination programs of 2021.  I do not like the idea of politicized labor but contemplate how organized labor could have been used to pushback against the diminishment of liberty. There is a potential for value; thus, I evaluate organized apolitical labor as a potential pragmatic ally.

That said, let us discuss the looming strike by The International Longshoreman’s Association, which represents 50,000 East and Gulf Coast dockworkers.

There are a lot of economic impacts that can be created by a dockworker strike; they range from inconvenient to severe depending on the industry and sector therein.  With the U.S. manufacturing base diminished, imported goods now represent the system to deliver essential products into our nation.

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The Teamsters Union make the following announcement, without specifically endorsing any presidential candidate for 2024.

[Source Link]

Attached to the statement, the union leadership release the results of the member polling from earlier this year through recent.

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We have talked about the disconnect between union members and union leadership for several years.  Within the trade unions the disconnect is even more noticeable.

Barack Obama leveraged union support to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary.  However, as President Trump entered the world of politics in 2015, the dynamic of union membership support radically changed.

Donald Trump, known as the blue-collar billionaire, has always held a great relationship with various trade unions.  President Trump has long supported the philosophical intent of trade unions as a collective body to stop corporate exploitation of members.  The workers support businessman Donald Trump and as a politician and businessman Donald Trump has always supported the workers.

In this segment broadcast on CNN, the more than modestly annoying Frank Luntz, outlines the union membership support for President Trump as contrast against the corrupt union leadership support that aligns with their personal financial interests.  WATCH:

Frank Luntz says union members are telling him, for the first time since he started focus groups in 1989, that union leadership doesn't speak for them

"Donald Trump is doing better among the average union member — not teachers unions and not government unions — but everybody… pic.twitter.com/WwGcifRZIH

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) August 14, 2024

The faces of the CNN panel were fraught with physical pain as they considered what Luntz was saying. lolol

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The popular farmer and trucker protests in the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Romania, France and now Belgium are continuing.

Sensing the problematic nature of the uprising, watching the protests escalate to direct confrontation at parliament, and facing considerable political opposition on many domestic issues, the French government of Emmanuel Macron has agreed to the terms of the French farmers. However, the two major labor unions associated with the farmers in France are not asking for the protests to stop until they see the agreement of the French government in writing.

Protesting farmers blockaded multiple roads and camped outside the European parliament building in Brussels on Thursday, ahead of a EU leaders’ summit in the Belgian capital. The demonstrators lit two fires outside and placed their tractors in front of the European parliament building. Farmers have been protesting across Europe against the globalist agenda, rising costs in the agriculture sector and targeted taxes by the various governments.

(Associated Press) – France’s two major farmers unions announced they would lift country-wide blockades Thursday, shortly after the prime minister introduced new measures aimed at protecting their livelihoods that they described as “tangible progress.”

However, farmer activists who have snarled traffic along major highways around Paris said they would stay put at least another day to see the government commitments in writing, and both unions said they would closely monitor any government implementation.

“We don’t want to hear words of love. What we want is proof of love,” said Thierry Desforges, a farm union member at road blockade of the A6 highway in Chilly-Mazarin, south of Paris.

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The disconnect between the working class and the self-proclaimed elites that rule above them is very clear in this self-admission from UAW Boss Shawn Fain.

UAW President Shawn Fain admits he endorsed Joe Biden despite the “great majority” of the UAW members who do not support him.  WATCH: 

Labor union bosses are like politicians.  They are appointed to positions of power by people they despise.  This is one of the reasons why it is important to break the cycle of abuse known as ‘battered conservative syndrome’.

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President Trump was interviewed by NewsMax at the conclusion of his speech to union and trade workers in Michigan.  {Direct Rumble Link Here} The impromptu interview covers a wide variety of topics and includes Trump’s pragmatic advice to the UAW leadership about their contract request.

As President Trump aptly notes, the Biden Green New Deal vehicle mandate for 100% electric vehicles within ten years, will collapse the U.S. auto industry.  It really doesn’t matter how much the union leadership demands for a pay scale, when the job itself will be wiped out.   Other points of pragmatic common sense are throughout this interview, and it is refreshing to hear Trump talk about optimal solutions to big challenges.  WATCH:

We really need President Trump back in office.

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Don’t pretend. The media are pitching this with full pretense.  Instead, look at the data carefully.  Tens of thousands of UAW members are on strike for better pay and benefits.   The installed occupant of the oval office makes a “historic” visit to the picket line.   About two dozen workers are there.  Think about it.

Look at the optics.  Do you think for one second that Team Obama would let their principal appear in such a smattering of support?  Not a chance.  This “crowd” might as well have had circles around their place to stand.  Joe Biden spent about an hour in Michigan before tripping back onto the plane and heading to meet Gavin Newsom in California.

Michigan – […] The move also appeared to be a clear counter to former President Donald Trump, who plans to visit Michigan on Wednesday instead of participating in the second Republican primary debate — the latest sign that both candidates have moved beyond the primary phase of the election and are focused on November 2024.

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A smart and strategic move by President Trump, the MAGA warrior of the middle and working-class.

On the night of the second GOPe ‘first loser’ debate, President Donald Trump will be in Detroit giving remarks to striking union workers, pipefitters and various trade workers.

The core of the MAGA coalition is the working and forgotten men and women who keep this nation functioning; a constituency that extends far beyond all races, colors, creeds and affiliations.

(New York Times) – Former President Donald J. Trump is planning to travel to Detroit on the day of the next Republican primary debate, according to two Trump advisers with knowledge of the plans, injecting himself into the labor dispute between striking autoworkers and the nation’s leading auto manufacturers.

The trip, which will include a prime-time speech before current and former union members, is the second consecutive primary debate that Mr. Trump is skipping to instead hold his own counterprogramming. He sat for an interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that posted online during the first G.O.P. presidential debate in August.

The decision to go to Michigan just days after the United Auto Workers went on strike shows the extent to which Mr. Trump wants to be seen as looking past his primary rivals — and the reality that both he and his political apparatus are already focused on the possibility of a rematch with President Biden.

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