Port strike and automation

[Derec]

So the longshoremen union is striking on the East Coast.
East and Gulf coast ports strike, with ILA longshoremen walking off job from New England to Texas, stranding billions in trade

Billions in trade came to a screeching halt at U.S. East Coast and Gulf Coast ports after members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, or ILA, began walking off the job after 12:01 a.m. ET on Tuesday.
The ILA is North America’s largest longshoremen’s union, with roughly 50,000 of its 85,000 members making good on the threat to strike at 14 major ports subject to a just-expired master contract with the United States Maritime Alliance, or USMX, and picketing workers beginning to appear at ports. The union and port ownership group failed to reach agreement by midnight on a new contract in a protracted battle over wage increases and use of automation.
In a last-ditch effort on Monday to avert a strike that will cause significant harm to the U.S. economy if it is lengthy — at least hundreds of millions of dollars a day at the largest ports like New York/New Jersey — the USMX offered a nearly 50% wage hike over six years, but that was rejected by the ILA, according to a source close to the negotiations, who was granted anonymity to speak about the private negotiations. The port ownership group said it hoped the offer would lead to a resumption of collective bargaining.
In a statement on Tuesday, ILA President Harold Daggett said the union is “now demanding $5 an hour increase in wages for each of the six years of a new ILA-USMX Master Contract. Plus, we want absolute airtight language that there will be no automation or semi-automation, and we are demanding all Container Royalty monies go to the ILA.”

Other than the massive pay increase they are demanding, the major sticking points is that the union does not want the ports to be automated like major ports around the world have been for years. Ports like Rotterdam and Shanghai. That puts US on the back foot compared to other developed nations.

This is an article from 2015.
Why Aren’t America’s Shipping Ports Automated?

A second reason for the delay in adopting modern automation is the effect on union jobs. Some have estimated that if the Port of Oakland were to implement a modern level of automation, 40-50% of the jobs would be eliminated.
All ports on the West Coast of the United States are organized under a single union, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which gives them a tremendously powerful collective bargaining position. A strike doesn’t just affect one port, but every single port on the the West Coast.
This union power was used to oppose the introduction of containers in the 1960s and, later, computerized systems for tracking cargo. In each case, however, the union eventually conceded the introduction of these technologies in exchange for higher wages for existing workers and buyouts for displaced ones.
As with previous disruptive technology ILWU will need to be compensated for any reduction in jobs. Today, the average member of the union in Oakland makes $147,000 per year in wages, with benefits equal to another $82,000 per year. Needless to say, providing buyouts to force retirement on these union workers, many of whom have dedicated their entire working lives to port operations, is not an appetizing prospect for the terminal operators.

That means that port operations are artificially inefficient because of the powerful union. Why isn't Big Labor subject to anti-trust laws?

I posted this in the October Surprise thread as well, but the "threat" of port automation was a plot point in the second season of The Wire which ran in 2003.

US still hasn't learned from Rotterdam. Nor from Hamsterdam, for that matter.

 

[jonatha]

Nor from Hamsterdam, for that matter.

Well, to be honest, if I were a longshoreman I wouldn't want to spend all day running inside a wheel either...

 

[TV and credit cards]

The increase sounds like a lot. What do these dudes actually make on an annual basis? How much overtime is made available to them? What is the rate of pay for overtime? This article states:

More than half of 3,726 dockworkers at the Port of New York and New Jersey earned more than $150,000 in the fiscal year that ended in 2020, according to the port's regulator, the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. About one in five dockworkers at the port earned more than $250,000 that year.

What are the hiring practices like? Is it rife with nepotism? Racial bias? This report states:

As this Report illustrates, six years and almost 1,300 additional workers later, very little progress has been made in diversifying the registered deep sea longshore workers in the respective ILA locals. Instead, the overwhelming majority of incoming Black/African American workers continue to be placed into one predominantly Black/African American local, ILA Local 1233 in Newark, New Jersey. In contrast, the highly-sought checker positions are primarily given to white males, who become members of the predominantly white checker local, ILA Local 1.
As a result, ILA Local 1 remains predominantly white (85%), with only 7% Black/African American and 7% Hispanic registered members. Conversely, almost 86% of ILA Local 1233’s registered longshore members are Black/African American, only 8% are white. And the numbers are even bleaker for registered maintenance workers/mechanics this year. In New Jersey, 86% of the 968 registered longshore maintenance workers/mechanics in ILA Local 1804-1 are white, only 1.9% are Black/African American, and 11.7% Hispanic. In New York, 71% of ILA Local
1814’s registered longshore maintenance workers/mechanics are white, only 3.6% are Black/African American, and 25% Hispanic. Disturbingly, only 1 out of the 1,024 registered longshore maintenance workers/mechanics in the Port is a woman.

I'm about as big a fan of unions as I am of corporations when it comes to slicing up the financial pie. It's all greed.
Twenty dollars and my left nut says the ILA hiring practices is on the friends and family plan. This would support the ongoing poor racial representation and the union's strong opposition to automation.
I'm all for a living wage. I'm all for a decent wage for the area of the country a person has to survive. But this looks to be monkey work that requires little training and any physically capable adult can do.
If there were proper federal government oversight and control, we wouldn't need unions.

 

[laughing dog]

Labor unions are not subject to antitrust laws because antitrust laws were written and enacted to deal with companies (usually corporations) engaging in anticompetitive behavior. Back then, corporations were not viewed as persons.

 

[Derec]

Labor unions are not subject to antitrust laws because antitrust laws were written and enacted to deal with companies (usually corporations) engaging in anticompetitive behavior. Back then, corporations were not viewed as persons.

Big Labor are corporations for all intents and purposes and they tend to wield monopoly power in their industries which gives them inordinate amount of power.

Unfortunately, both Kamala and Biden are in full support of ILA despite their unreasonable demands and despite the Union keeping US ports antiquated for decades.

Harris backs striking port workers, knocks Trump
Port strike update: Biden says he won't invoke 1947 law to try to suspend action

 

[laughing dog]

Labor unions are not subject to antitrust laws because antitrust laws were written and enacted to deal with companies (usually corporations) engaging in anticompetitive behavior. Back then, corporations were not viewed as persons.

Big Labor are corporations for all intents and purposes and they tend to wield monopoly power in their industries which gives them inordinate amount of power.

Big labor usually co-exists with big business. Notice that the ILA is not negotiating with many firms but one entity.

Unfortunately, both Kamala and Biden are in full support of ILA despite their unreasonable demands and despite the Union keeping US ports antiquated for decades.

Harris backs striking port workers, knocks Trump
Port strike update: Biden says he won't invoke 1947 law to try to suspend action

Labor negotiations are just that - both sides make demands and concessions until there is an agreement. A strike is a last ditch effort by a union to get management to make more concessions. Without knowing the full context of the work environment, the profitability of the concern, and the actual back and forth of negotiations, I think picking a side in the dark is simply reflecting an ideological bias.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Labor negotiations are just that - both sides make demands and concessions until there is an agreement. A strike is a last ditch effort by a union to get management to make more concessions. Without knowing the full context of the work environment, the profitability of the concern, and the actual back and forth of negotiations, I think picking a side in the dark is simply reflecting an ideological bias.

1) Look at the article. The union is severely hampering automation and making US ports inefficient.

2) Big unions always harm their employers. That's why there are few left--they've generally destroyed their employers. Only the ones where that can't realistically happen still exist.

 

[laughing dog]

Labor negotiations are just that - both sides make demands and concessions until there is an agreement. A strike is a last ditch effort by a union to get management to make more concessions. Without knowing the full context of the work environment, the profitability of the concern, and the actual back and forth of negotiations, I think picking a side in the dark is simply reflecting an ideological bias.

1) Look at the article. The union is severely hampering automation and making US ports inefficient.

This is relevant to the stalled negotiations because..,,,

2) Big unions always harm their employers. That's why there are few left--they've generally destroyed their employers. Only the ones where that can't realistically happen still exist.

Ideological claptrap.

 

[Axulus]

This can only help Trump. Couldn't they have waited until after the election? They should bring in the Hatians and get the ports operating again ASAP

 

[Swammerdami]

This can only help Trump. Couldn't they have waited until after the election? They should bring in the Hatians and get the ports operating again ASAP

Yes. But American Hatters also have a history of unionization. In 1896 the International Trade Association of Hat Finishers of America merged with the National Hat Makers' Association of the United States and that combined entity merged in 1934 with the Cloth Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union to form the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union. Subsequent mergers led to the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, and then (merging with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union) the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees. But by 2009 most of the Hatters had broken away, with other workers to form Workers United. All trace of their origin as Hatters (or Hatians?) vanished from their union's name.

It seems that the Hatter's Union devoted much of its libido to mergers.

If looking for a longer-lasting Hatians' Union, please consider the  Worshipful Company of Haberdashers, more formally known as The Master and Four Wardens of the Fraternity of the Art or Mystery of Haberdashers in the City of London. It was founded 650 years ago and still operates under its ancient name.

 

[TV and credit cards]

This can only help Trump. Couldn't they have waited until after the election? They should bring in the Hatians and get the ports operating again ASAP

Retailers and all concerned knew this was coming and had been stocking up. Any pain at the checkout shouldn't occur until after the election. Then again, greed.