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"Catastrophic Shutdown Of America's Supply Chain Looms" As West Coast Port Worker Talks Break Down
For those who have been following the recent ISM reports, one of the recurring concerns of respondents in both the manufacturing and service sector has been the congestion at West Coast Ports - which handled 43.5% of containerized cargo in the U.S and where transiting cargo accounted for 12.5% of US GDP - as a result of reduced work output by the local unions who have been more focused in recent weeks on ongoing wage hike negotiations.
And according to the latest update from the 29 west coast ports that serve as the entry point of the bulk of Asia/Pac trade into and out of the US, things are about to get far worse for America's manufacturing base, because as RILA reported earlier, talks between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) representing port management, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) officially broke down on Wednesday, and without an agreement, experts have suggested that nearly 30 west coast ports could be shut down within a week.
As RILA reports, "a work slowdown during contract negotiations over the past seven months has already created logistic nightmares for American exporters, manufacturers and retailers dependent on an efficient supply chain. A complete shutdown would be catastrophic, with hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk if America’s supply chain grinds to a halt."
More:
"A west coast port shutdown would be an economic disaster," said Kelly Kolb, vice president of government affairs for the Retail Industry Leaders Association. “A shutdown would not only impact the hundreds of thousands of jobs working directly in America’s transportation supply chain, but the reality is the entire economy would be impacted as exports sit on docks and imports sit in the harbor waiting for manufacturers to build products and retailers to stock shelves.
“The slowdown is already making life difficult, but a shutdown could derail the economy completely,” said Kolb. “For retailers specifically, a shutdown will have dire consequences for those dependent on spring inventory demand.”
The last prolonged port shutdown of the West Coast ports was the 10-day lockout in 2002 which was estimated to cost the U.S. economy close to $1 billion a day.
“A port shutdown of even a short duration could derail economic growth and cause long-lasting damage and job losses across the country,” said Kolb. “There needs to be a greater sense of urgency at the White House, before it’s too late.”
One can see why the US retail association is concerned. So will there be a strike? Here is Bloomberg's take:
Union-led work slowdowns could halt the 29 U.S. West Coast ports in five to 10 days, the head of the shippers’ association said, urging the union to accept a new offer that includes 3 percent raises. James McKenna, the president of the Pacific Maritime Association, said backups and delays at many of the ports are harming farmers, manufacturers and consumers as the flow of goods approaches a “coast-wide meltdown.” He called on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to accept management’s second formal contract proposal since negotiations began last May.
“We’re not considering a lockout,” McKenna said on a conference call with reporters, his first public comments since the talks began. “What I’m really saying is that this system will bring it to a stop. Once that happens, we really don’t have a choice.”
Which is like the ECB saying "we don't really want Greece out, but we will halt their liquidity. Once that happens, Greece doesn't really have a choice."
Here are the port workers' demands:
The association of shipping lines, terminal operators and stevedores made public details of its contract offer, including 3 percent annual raises over five years, retaining employer-paid health care, and raising pensions by 11 percent. The average dockworker now makes $147,000 a year in salary, plus $35,000 a year in employer-paid health care and an annual pension of $80,000, according to an association press release.
And while there hasn't been a formal lock out yet, the reality is that the workers have made their displeasure felt loud and clear:
McKenna blamed the union for work slowdowns that have contributed to congestion at the largest West Coast ports, including Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma. Twenty-two ships were queued up Wednesday at the harbor shared by the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, up from as few as four in mid-December, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, in one measure of the backups confronting shippers.
Since early November, the longshore union has been dispatching fewer crane operators in Los Angeles and Long Beach and slowing cargo movement in Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma, according to a Feb. 3 maritime association presentation. McKenna said productivity at many ports is down by as much as half, suggesting that cargo movement “will collapse under its own weight.”
Some of the impacts of the already experienced slowdown has included keeping U.S.-raised Christmas trees from reaching consumers in Asia, depriving McDonald’s customers in Japan of french fries, and stranded shipments of Mardi Gras beads bound for New Orleans.
Should talks fall apart, it probably will not be the end of the world: a nearly identical situation developed one decade ago leading to a 10 day lock down and which ended up costing the US economy $10 billion per day:
In the conference call, McKenna said the two sides remain at odds over wages, pensions, the duration of the contract and arbitration for workplace disputes. He said the sides are “far apart” on some issues and nearing agreement on others.
The parties negotiated many of the same issues in 2002 before the maritime association locked out workers for 10 days amid slowdowns. That stoppage, which ended when then-President George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act, cost the U.S. economy $1 billion a day, the maritime association said.
A 20-day lockout now would cost more than $2 billion a day, the association said in a report last year, including losses to railroads, ocean carriers and the broader economy.
Which incidentally, in an economy that is desperate for any "one-time, non-recurring" item to explain what is now global secular stagnation and economic slowdown, an excuse such as a port strike, or a harsh winter, or a strong dollar, or plunging crude, may be precisely the scapegoat that the central-planning doctor ordered.
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Perfect! A wonderful excuse for any upcoming recession!
That right their should be good for another 75 spx points next week
Idiots. Port workers should have dragged this out until about October right before the holiday. They must have missed the advertisement for Karrass school of negotiating while on a plane
i was at a local kmart for the first time in years last weekend, looked like a middle east flea market,,,,,,didnt have what my daughter needed, the hyperinflation wwill be the cleaner
Bullish for stocks whether it gets resolved OR not!
When the cops conduct a 6 month $10 million investigation and discover that the port workers are making $147,000 a year and get $80,000 a year pensions there is going to be trouble...
Felixstowe arrival for world's largest container shiphttp://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-suffolk-30700269
The Hong Kong-registered CSCL Globe, measuring more than 400m (1,313ft) in length, docked at Felixstowe loaded with about 19,000 standard containers.
The MSC Oscar just became the world's biggest container shiphttp://www.vox.com/2015/1/8/7513317/container-ship-msc-oscar
19,000 standard containers .... takes nearly all the resoures of a port to load and unload for about 5 days.
The average dockworker now makes $147,000 a year in salary, plus $35,000 a year in employer-paid health care and an annual pension of $80,000, according to an association press release.
Dock workers get paid waaaaayyyyyyy too much!
It's cause Putin has Asperger's syndrome!
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/02/04/putin-aspergers-s...
You fucking mooks!
Could be worse... could be ass burger syndrome (don't ask)
P.S. You keep forgeting to put the /sarc tag in...
Whats an average dock worker?? crane operaters I can understand ---stevedores yeah ---but average dock worker?? well, in any case its minimum wage blowback for sure--just saying. I don't think many on here would climb 200 ft up a skinny stair to sit atop one of those big diesel electric cranes to run it--much less walk out on the boom to do wire maintenance--they run in bad weather as well as good-- tough scary job--or stand on a scaffold 100ft off the water on the end of the boxes and lift 20ft steel holddowns overhead to hook the boxes---and like the man said--12% of US GDP goes through those ports-must be worth something. Compared to what cops do these guys work.
You're still talking about a 70K a year job. Not twice that. I have been a commercial diver, welder, piledriver and deckhand in the past, so I agree it is dangerous and dirty work, however they are dock workers, it takes an IQ of no more than 70 and about 40 hours of training. Labor is a market, like anything else.
Thanks to the insane greed of these unions we all have to get screwed by Nafta, H1B's and illegal immigration. How can you blame businesses from trying to survive when they have to deal with parasites like this every day?
I'll be happy when these idiots get automated out of a job and end up in an alcoholic coma.
For $147K a year I'll do all that and resist the temptation to urinate on all those below me...
Scale for a Longshoreman in my neck of FEMA regionX is around $32/hr + bennies.
Longshoremen trying to grab it while they can. Two years from now the container ships will use the expanded Panama Canal and unload at a right to work state, like Texas or Georgia.
It will ALL be automated within 7 years, MAX.
Like Reagan did with the air traffic controllers, Obama will order the dock workers back to their jobs, like the union buster he is...just kidding.
Keep in mind people, dock workers make that much money, and many of them never finished high school. Dockworkers are a special breed of pussy.
What if they call a strike, but the economy is so bad that no one notices?
Many have tried to stop the ILWU but their strikes are honored by AFL and Teamsters. Everything gets shut down. No politician would dare stand up to them.
You forgot China's Nicaragua Canal. When that gets built the Panama Canal will only be used for pleasure craft and US warships.
Tijuana or another Mexican Port.
I understand CAN and MEX are going to benefit from this
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-08-27/canadian-ports-win-as-...
Asian Traffic will gain 2-3 Days by offloading in CAN rather than in SFO/LAX(using airpots for my convenience); and I'm sure MEXican Ports will be cheaper.
Those 147K+35+80 Figures are incredible. I once had a Storekeeper on my Ship who (good worker, however) "Alcoholed" himself out of Nuke Boats; and ended up "Alcoholing himself" to have the idiocy to Fight and Punch out 2 Marine Officers in a Bar Room in BAHRAIN. He was obviously jailed and deported within a few days (luckily); and BCD'd (Bad Conduct Discharged) out of the Navy. I tried to keep him of trouble a few times (and put him on restriction so he can cool his head and avoid getting himself Court-Martial'd for Bad Checks all over the Navy Base - you'd figure he'd BUY his own Bottles and stash it in a Locker, or rent an apt and drink at home); but one can only do so much.
I recommended a General or OTH (Other Than Honorable); but I guess punching people in what's technically a "Dry Muslim Country" was a very bad Idea. Yes, he put a chit in to go out on Liberty Call during one of our Wartime Deployments while on restriction - Yes, I recommended against it, since we were in a "Dry" Country (even if drinking was allowed (the Saudis drove/flew there to drink), public drunkenness was inexcusable) - I think I was the only one in his Chain who did. IIRC, I remember the CO (a CAPT) and my XO came onboard from being called ashore before we left, looking as if people with lots of solid gold on their shoulder boards (i.e., Admirals) and Diplomatic Power "pee'd" all over their faces; then yelled at them for getting pee on their Superiors' Shoes...
The Storekeeper? He got busted down to a "Seaman" before he got booted (he almost could have made it to Chief if he kept it together for 4 more years until he was eligible for retirement); and got a job as a Dockworker driving a forklift. To think that (provided that he sought more Medical Help) the ex-Storekeeper may have been making a pretty penny while I've been busting my hump with my Consulting Business after the Dot Com Bust...makes me momentarily reconsider my Career Choices. ROTFL.
Hope he made it out for himself, Funny, though, that several State/Fed Employees who observed my situation have brought up his name; and when his name came up when I was visiting my Mother at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance one day, some bizarre Caucasians were repeating comments by another Sailor who claimed I was "the only Officer he served with who kept him out of trouble"...
They should be thanking me instead of stalking me; but guess I'll look into that later... WTF!!!
"Scale for a Longshoreman in my neck of FEMA regionX is around $32/hr + bennies."
Hmm. That's only $64K/year assuming 50 wks work times 40hrs. So where is all this talk of $147K coming from? Is this the usual elite habit of conflating the cost to the employer with the wages the worker is paid? I see it done with teachers all the time, where the school board tells the press it costs them an average of $60K to employ one teacher and the press blindly says that's what teachers earn. But the higher figure includes the benefits including retirement, healthcare, employer share of FICA and sometimes even some other costs like administrative support.
Fake overtime and bribes by the employer to not damage things.
That's up north from CA...what he is saying is it is cheaper, so if they would build the infrastructure there they could bring in more ships to this area...aka competition. In reality, this should keep prices lower.
Your a good man ZerOhead...good man.
Mr Speedo; must not be many men where you are from. Men that I know overcome a lot of fears to provide for their families(including sitting on a very small seat out in the breeze to paint a water tower for a lot less money no retirement and no healthcare)These guys are just spoiled rotten; tell them to look around at the wasteland around them. The truly bad thing is is that they will sell their house when they retire for a couple of million, and bring their pension to Texas and buy a "ranch" of 30 acres and pay outrageous prices for the land because 5000 an acre is cheap and drive land prices sky high and all of their kids will follow them because they can't lose their gravy train and they will all complain because everyone her drives a pickup or SUV. They will also vote for anyone who keeps the gravy train going. So please if you are from California stay the fuck out of Texas unless you are a small buisennesses man looking for a friendlier atmosphere.
Texas will be overrun in 10 years - max - just like the rest of the US.
It's about dragging everyone/thing/place down to the same level for our corporate overlords.
$35,000 a year in employer-paid health care
WTF? $2,916 a month for healthcare?
Are massages by big breasted blondes in network?
No kidding. This is MENTAL.
Transgender operations are expensive.
No kidding. There must be a procedure code for happy endings in that market.
JFC. This whole "your mentally ill if you don't agree to be a slave" schtick is some seriously desperate and depraved shit. In this case, I'd call it projection on the part of the sociopath fuckwits in Vichy DC. I'm sure a similar report will surface about the new government of Greece soon enough.
This Pentagon crafted propaganda is nothing but bullshit as Putin is the toughest leader on earth. Putin won't fold, back down or be baited.
Too bad we don't have anyone like him in the US. This asperger's bullshit is probably humorous to him.
Funny though, Putin says McCain is a retard as a result of brain injuries caused by the Viet Cong!
Read "The Real McCain"
Schechter mentions briefly a number of McCain's obvious personal weaknesses, including his dissolute youth and poor academic record (he graduated sixth from the bottom of his class of nearly 900 students at the Naval Academy), his divorce, and his speedy remarriage to a wealthy younger woman, a beer heiress whom he courted while still married, and has helped bankroll his career ever since. Where such flaws as McCain's volcanic temper are concerned, Schechter ties them to specific incidents, which are legion. In addition, he points out McCain's reciprocated love affair with powerful members of the Beltway media elite, which is not shared by journalists in his adoptive home state of Arizona. Frightening evidence is provided of McCain's ignorance of numerous issues, such as the economy, public health, and the advisability of maintaining and even expanding the war in Iraq.
He is a retard.
his temper got men killed on his carrier. he was in his plane and FIRED 2 missles, thinking they would go over the heads, but no they didnt. He was immediately transferred because the men on board were gonna get revenge. Not to mention his leaking key data about his plane and methods to north vietnamese, which those in the know estimate was responsible for up to 70 percent of the shoot downs after his help. Hence the statue of him in north vietnam.
Wet start. The guy who worked the next door down from me was a colonel who was there.
He is a useful retard, as Lenin might have said.
To borrow a phrase, MCain is low-life scum.
Who hasn't missed a monthly federal check since he was 18.
Funny though, Putin says McCain is a retard as a result of brain injuries caused by the Viet Cong!
Nah, McCain was a retard long before he ever met the Viet Cong.
"Researchers can't prove their theory about Putin and Asperger's, the report said, because they were not able to perform a brain scan on the Russian president. The report cites work by autism specialists as backing their findings. It is not known whether the research has been acted on by Pentagon or administration officials."
I am laughing like it is already Friday afternoon at the bar. Good one.
Oh the evil.
I suggest Putin needs to submit to a brain scan immediately. Otherwise it is a Russkie plot to capture my precious bodily fluids.
Brain scan to be conducted on US soil and supervised by Fed.
Just remember, it's all about Purity of Essence.
Headbanger
Only 7 Russian trolls. Maybe they are going on strike
Headbanger
Only 7 Russian trolls. Maybe they are going on strike
I'm in the wrong field of employ. Only at the peak of the first internet bubble was I making that kind of money as an engineer.
I used to have a bit of contact with Longshoreman's Union. Very good contracts that date back forever. Would I give up an inch? Not likely. HOWEVER even 35 years ago a huge percentage of the guys I knew were lazy time-wasters.
Used to go to the "hall" and with seniority claim jobs on the Vancouver waterfront midnight shift. Pay incentives were huge even then. Many would take a six pack to work and sleep. But that was not all of this union by any means.
so were the car makers up in Michigan ... but look at them now.
now is the time for californians and then who knows will see ...
same happen in greece in stages one by one ... hopefully this country will make it back
I'm in a union and when I read about these guys I know what I'd do if I were a manager at one of those ports.
Bring in the scabs.
If there was a union of Wall Street CEO's and mid-management workers I would agree. And there seems to be the strongest union on the planet right now with these folks. I say lock THEM out.
It is all very relative my friend. What is the cost of a single household with 3 kids? So while I think this union has managed to hang onto it's contracts for decades? I am thinking that the average cost of raising a middle class family of 4 with one parent working.....with a roof over their head and even modest expectations (not Hamptons for the summer or DisneyFake every week). Cost of educating 3 kids. Cost of living that is not tampered?
Well the Longshoreman have retained some small semblance of parity in a graph that keeps pace with the CEO bonuses and eanrnings. With tuitions. With home prices where one puts down a good down payment.
So unpopular as this may be. Go for it. Shut down Team USA. This is really blue collar workers who have enough power left to point out how far middle class has sunk in this global free trade fiasco.
And to be crystal clear. People are being deliberately pushed to settle for less and less. And envy sets in. I do not carry banners for this union. I just notice how so many people willing to work are envious and offering to do the work for 1/4.
That was the goal of this garbage. NAFTA...and on and on.
Create slaves. But better yet create arguing serfdoms. Let us fight over every morsel and bid our dignity down just to live.
"Do I hear a bid for 20 dollars?"
"I'll work for 17!"
"I'll work for 15!"
"I'll work for 10 dollars!"
"Going once, twice, sold! You get the job for 10 dollars an hour. Congratulations, serf."
/facepalm of lol
Amen.
My dad working as an autoworker in Texas, a historically lower cost of living/lower tax state, was paid $45,000 a year in 1983.
Plug that in to a standard inflation calculator (not shadow stats) and today that would be about $107,000 a year.
Regular guys have been getting fucked.
Then when a group is pointed out as having it a little better everyone hollers because those people are "overpaid and spoiled."
And the billionaires just laugh.
The shipping companies will moan that the union gets too much. But if a dock worker gets 147 K, then a shipping co manager has to get 200K, can't have management getting paid less than the worker. If low level managers make that much, higher level managers have to make even more. Works for everyone execpt the consumer.
The shipping companies will moan that the union gets too much. But if a dock worker gets 147 K, then a shipping co manager has to get 200K, can't have management getting paid less than the worker. If low level managers make that much, higher level managers have to make even more. Works for everyone execpt the consumer.
May you repeat that to a dockworker. You deserve physical retribution since a mental exercise is too much.
You can make more as a Professional Dumpster Diver.
http://www.wired.com/2015/02/high-end-dumpster-diving-matt-malone/?mbid=...
Economy can't support relatively unskilled labour at those rates.
I bet Chinese workers loading the containers their end are on at least that amount.
US ports do not even come in the Top 10 in the world.
6 out of Top 10 in 2013....2014 data is not yet available...were from China.
LA, being the largest port had 7.8m TEU while Shanghai the No 1 in 2013 had 33m TEU (Largest US port is 4 times smaller than No 1 in the world). The No 10 from China had 12m TEU. So the largest US port is somewhere around No. 12 or No 15.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2014/11/11/the-worlds-10-busiest-p...
US ports do not even matter in the scheme of things!
The stars are being realigned! While US keeps watching.....
The pay is too damn high ...........
They make too much...Fuck them
Move everything out of calipornia
17 billion containers/year? That's a lot of cheap dwellings
Hmmmm new subprime oportunities
Securitized Subprime Conex Home Loans! AAA Rated!
Hotdogs get turned into sirloin by the securitization and the ratings agencies chow down with the Oligarchs until we eat them with pitchforks for breakfast, lunch, and diner! Frankly, with the latest round of subprime we don't have long to wait.
that's 50 containers/American, and they are 8 x 8 x 32 feet. What the hell are we importing?
Biggest Loser contestants, maybe.
Depends on how many Chinese you can stuff into that space, doesn't it? Not everyone (well, almost not everyone) gets a H1-B visa these days.
Nearly goddamn everything.
Food, car parts, steel, etc.
When it all gets shipped back, it's hazardous waste.
Being a longshorman is probably more dangerous than being a blue costume wearing, badge toting, jack-boot janitor.
Somebody must be trying to automate our ports again!!
"When the cops conduct a 6 month $10 million investigation and discover that the port workers are making $147,000 a year and get $80,000 a year pensions there is going to be trouble..."
Isn't that what cops make?
Ain't unions great....
When the cops conduct a 6 month $10 million investigation and discover that the port workers are making $147,000 a year and get $80,000 a year pensions there is going to [road side search and seizures outside the employee parking lots]
-- there fixed it for yah !
who wrote this comical article!! I thought it was a comedian when I read that it threatened American's manufacturing base and that hundreds of thousands of jobs were at stake. LOL....I'm still laughing. WHAT MANUFACTURING BASE!! Boeing and Caterpillar? Oh yah, our auto industry does get a lot of parts from Korea, etc...so, maybe people won't be able to take out those 7 year mortgages on a new car. so what!!
I'm throwing you a bone China...build the worlds largest port in Tijuana where people with a 6th grade education won't insist on making 4x a teachers salary to load boats.
Threatening WalFart and Dollar stores more likely. Melamine dog biscuit imports. Human trafficing. Dope importations. Foreign fruits. Give me a break.
Exactly. Catastrophic? Blow shit out of proportion much?
Of course, everything's bullish for stocks these days. Bring on the four horsemen and it'll be Dow 50,000.
Turner & Hooch are on the case.
Long Burger King...I mean Shake Shak!
A middle-eastern flea market has higher quality goods, less unscrupliuos vendors, and more obedient women.
It was a decent place to live till we gave them the vote.
Bullish!
Checks the market all is Good What ya talking about markets don't lie
Exactly, It's all priced in, right?
you know how many union workrs it takes to change a lightbulb??
3! You got a problem ?
Where were the "catastrophic" headlines when American elites decided to off-shore our manufacturing?
Those increased margins from low-wage, off-shore labor went into owner's and manager's pockets, with unemployment checks for the rest.
Don't forget EBT cards...
When did they reduce manpower for the bulb changing crew ........
Union strikes...
It’s typical for any communist country.
Next they’ll run out of toilet paper and viagra....
And than their leader will call in price controls...
Fuck the longshoremans union. A buddy of mine who used to run logistics for a big carrier told me some stories about the New Jersey port. The jobs are ridiculously high paying and handed out friends and relatives and loyal subjugates of the union. He told me a story about what the union requirements were for a shiping clerk: The salary was $165k/year and they were not allowed to use a computer. The computer part finally changed and since this was about 8 years ago I'm guessing the salry is higher now too. These jobs don't take rocket scientists...some on the job developed skill? Yes, but the pool of potential employees is huge at half the price in today's world. Fuck these guys. I hope some hungry unemployed peeps that can drive a forklift and run a crane show up to pick up these jobs.
I hope the port shut downs for an extended period of time.Fedex and UPS will gladly take this work from them and they have the planes to do it.
While I'd enjoy a lockout and the union to be broken, the second part about FedEx and UPS is WILDLY untrue. The average weight of a loaded shipping container is 25,000 pounds-ish. FedEx and UPS's fleets are mostly A300's, 767's, and DC-10/11's that can haul around 100,000 pounds-ish. If you run the math, in order to fly the cargo from just ONE of the new 19,000 TEU container ships, you'd need about 5,000 flights. That's each of the delivery companies combined fleet of 1,000-ish aircraft making five flights across the Pacific... to handle the cargo on just one ship. There are currently 22 ships anchored in LA waiting to unload.
Well then. we would just have to return to manufacturing our own shit again.
Price is the measure. Scarce resource allocation is its result.
Well like Nanny stated, we will just have to manufacturer our own shit again. We have all the infrastucture built in North America with experienced workers who are a dying breed. There is absolutely nothing China has that we need. So after we get our country back then we can use those UPS and Fedex planes. We will not need all that Asia junk. They can keep it all.
All the farm goods that are grown in America and shipped to Asian countries are also impacted with this episode.
We may not have a lot of manufactured goods to export, but we have wheat, corn, potatoes, vegetables and fruit to ship.
A lot of the soft stuff is frozen for shipment and goes in big freezer containers.
So, it's more than the American consumer part of the economy that is in jeopardy.
So, what you're saying is that if the ports get shut down for long enough, the amount of ethanol in our gasoline is going to be increased. Wonderful! I look forward to reparing whatever it fucks up on mine!
There is a plethora of mouths to feed right here in the USA. The worse idea was making corn into ethanol then subsidizing it when fucking people in this country are hungry. We are so far down the road at this point that when the hens come home to roost, there will be major fucking pain for everyone. Nobody will escape it. Not even the elite. Living in a bunker for their remainder of their pathetic lives is not what I call good living.
Well, I am a senior engineer in a manufacturing plant.... owned by the Chinese. All the workers are American, as are the management. The accountants are Chinese, though. So I do need China right now, for their capital they are investing here.
It's an odd world now.
22 ships waiting? What's the wait time? Anyway, the transit time by ship say from Shanghai to LA is 17 days plus 5 days to load and 5 days to unload. That's 27 days best case scenario for a one way trip. I'm curious as to what the real one way trip time is for shipping. 5000 plane loads is only 185 flights per day to match the 'efficiency' of shipping. It wouldn't even take a cargo plae a full 24 hour cycle to load make the trip and unload. How many takeoff and landings per day at LAX ? about 1600. not sure how much of that is cargo and passengers though. If its really taking closer to 49 days to ship (adding a day to unload each ship waiting to be unloaded) its even easier to match the efficiency. Another thing is, for cargo that is going much further than the port, the aircraft has the advantage avoiding delays and going more directly from point to point.
While it's a fair point, you'd run out of airplanes pretty fast. All the world's cargo planes could only replace a handful of ships.
The US east coast is the ILA and a seperate labor union from the ILWU.
There’s always somebody willing to work cheaper.
And before you know it, all manufacturing has moved to the country with the cheapest labor force.
My father always told me: never envy the guys driving porches, but the day you won’t see any driving the road anymore... that’s when you should panick.
I once had a marketing job and one day I forget to take the printout of my salary with me and my collegues saw it.
I made a lot more money than all of them and they rebelled. And do you want to know the funny part?
THEY WHERE ALL ANGRY I MADE MORE MONEY THEN THEM!! THEY FOUND I SHOULD MAKE LESS MONEY!!
None of those morons had the guts to ask for a raise but all of them had the guts to demand I would make less.
Did I found that funny :)
Only idiots work for less. And that’s why they live in the sewers of society.
So if you know people who would work for less, UNKNOW these people ASAP!! They will only drag you down.
Hang out with the crowd that always wants more. People without ambition will never get what they expect to get for free. Those are the slackers who hate the world and wonder why they never get a shot in life.
Don’t hate the person who makes more money than you, just buy a mirror and look to the guy in front of and ask him what he can do to make more.
It's always about the money for a certain station of folk. Bling folk. Measure a man? Show me his skill set and character under adversity. When he believes no ONE is seeing. Seen a lot of balance sheets in me day. And those arcane, mystical balance sheets that are not precise indicators of the content of a man too. Roughshod reckonings. I've seen the finest souls labouring under meager means, and the utterly despicable with paper token o'plenty. You do glimpse it in the countenance. In the big/small scheme, mankind has about a forty year span to really show what's written in their heart, for "by their fruits ye shall know all beings." In this masterpiece of life's miracle--the game underway, the daily notations of a string of man endeavour, birth to degradation. Men groping about the dark, eyes full with cataract, seeking to have a full understanding by their very limited slice of physical experience. Making universal theory out of the thinnest slice of life's experience and function. O Magister Ludi, so froward we lower order beings, thinking that we are the top order, was ist das das GlasPerlenSpiel? You mercenary hessians, always thinking you can outwit death. But money.....
Money. Who creates money? Who creates wealth, who BESTOWS wealth? Those "bags of guts" as we are, and sometimes worse, as de Vinci recognized them, come to an earth, a planet (like a bag--only the thinnest membrane supports them, think on that) ignorant, gain strength somehow (who gives and grants this, DNA?), start lording themselves over all creation. The law (written in the heart or not) is the only restraint upon a biological who would, if could, remake all within its realm after its own soul. Most would make a desert. Astonishingly few an oasis. So chase your petty carnal and undeniable cravings, comfort the outer creature, divert yourself in acquisition and look how you spend it??!!, take glee in those daily creature comforts which numb you to a transcendance. You get what you pay for. And vanity over a few excess numbers of fiat paper bestows by a fallen man whose image you worship, WOW? Petty perfect. You acquire and then you spend satiating yourself HOW? This is a revelation to you of yourself. Your purchase often defines you, what do you put in your pigskin wallet?
Civility, harmony, delightfulness, pleasing to the mind, ear, and all senses, buttress to high nobleness? I doubt it, it's a rarity almost lost forever from this earth.
Recliner, lookety-box, silly fist-pumping colloseum events, tremendously important (for under a week). And what won? Wants me a pennant, wants me a ring, wants me a reason to care about such insignificance. Money well spent? Probably less than 1% of money is spent well. The rest wasted on vanity and ignorance. How many O'henry "little match girls" saved? How many big-balled Conquering Hero jousts in military, sports, conspicuous consumption?
FOLLY IS MAN!
Alex! dude! I kinda get you - but shit - well I will just ask - did you just smoke a big fucking faty or what?
No, thy brother went straight to the meth.
I see someone is familiar with Hermann Hesse' novel The Glass Bead Game.
In English, the title is Magister Ludi.
Longest book I ever read in German, and it was still worth the effort.
I had a boss ask me once if I was pissed that he made so much money. I told him no I just want to make more.
THEY WHERE ALL ANGRY I MADE MORE MONEY THEN THEM!! THEY FOUND I SHOULD MAKE LESS MONEY!!
pail of crabs mentality - the essence of socialism.
I think it's very, very important that these fuckers be reduced to maybe 25K per year in income; I'm sure they prolly work 40 hours a week in OT and transship hundreds of millions of dollars in goods per day - but it's really the principle of it all.
If we could institute a new Visa program for cheaper foreign workers, import more Mexicans, sell the ports to Israelies or Chinese and break the union, that'd be awesome!
Then we could boost executive pay by 100% across the board, and gift the CEO another 100 million.
You're jealous of some schmuck because he's overpaid? Nut up and go apply for the job yourself.
I am all for high pay but have you met any of these people? They are idiots. This job could be done better by obama voters.................oh wait.
peanuts compared to what's being stolen from the tax mules.
The irony being that both Communists and Unions (yes...its redundant) are suppose to be for the workers.
Remember the UNION Air Traffic Controller strike to shut the nations airports? Well that failed miserably.
Same here. Military can move goods, hello. Or just hire a private non-union company. We don't need the Unions...
This is a sad click bait headline ZH.
The only problem is that there are a relatively limited number of ports and vessels. If a vessel is loaded by non-union workers or at a non-union port, next thing you know no one in other ports will touch it. The international shipping unions have a death grip on these gateways.
There is not one thing in those ports I want or need in life.
Yeah that's what the Air Traffic Controllers thought too...
The only problem is that there are a relatively limited number of ports and vessels. If a vessel is loaded by non-union workers or at a non-union port, next thing you know no one in other ports will touch it. The international shipping unions have a death grip on these gateways.
.gov will declare a national emergency and they'll nationalise the ports.
Course, .gov workers wil probably get paid even more, for less work... but the ports will be open again.
It's worse than you think...
"Most clerks earned roughly $147,000, while the highest-paid earned well over $200,000 per year. Walking bosses, or foremen, are the highest-paid ILWU workers, many of them earning well over $200,000 and some more than $300,000. Nearly 13,600 ILWU workers are employed at West Coast ports. In 2013, the total payroll for the nearly 13,600 ILWU members was roughly $1.4 billion. For detail on ILWU worker incomes, see this display."
http://www.joc.com/port-news/longshoreman-labor/international-longshore-...
The good news is that the Chinese own the port..
Their cost of living is extremely high on the west coast. Just a guess here, I'll bet their disposable income is less than a midwesterner making 60K a year. That aside, fuck 'em. That's a lot of FIAT for driving a Forklift...
More likely for watching someone drive a forklift...
Their cost of socialism is extremely high on the west coast.
That is good news ---Chinese own it---now the interested parties can move down the shoreline a little and build a robo port-- Chinese out workers out- only cheap stuff wall to wall-- but who's to buy the stuff----not longshoreman with no jobs--that's for sure. ---
So many rent seekers. So few McDonalds jobs.
Around 100.000$ on average?
1.4 billlions by 13.600 workers?
If the bosses make over 300.000, the median ought to be lower than 100.000
We have the wrong president for that.
Sigh, I miss Reagan.
QE4, 5 and 6 already at the printing press as we speak
Rapper Flavor Flav demands Obama take action against ISIS:
http://tinyurl.com/l8co7a4
Chuck D always said that Flav was there for the comedic jester effect.
9/11's a joke
Longshoreman .... the only (quasi) private sector job .... that even comes close .... to government worker .... in pay, bennies and retirement !
It'll be non-catastrophic but economy boosting shit as always. They just need the same bunch of paper insert in the mouths of whovever is against or in favor. Don' matter ... nothing s gonna happen
Ya they wore out the Polar Vortex excuse
Good for us other producers in the supply chain! Fuck California (and New York for that matter).
People have forgotten how fast "low prices" can turn into shortages...
fuck em.
The only problem is that for manufacturers this is a global supply chain. As we all know every new car in America has parts from Asia. How long once the ports shut down before the assembly lines follow. I give them 2 weeks tops. Of course you can't just buy a substitute part from a local maker. There are enormous engineering, tooling and compatibility challenges to swap one part for another.
Inventories are high. This is the wrong time to strike. They will be lucky if they don't get dumped into Obamacare.
I know several modern machine shops and skilled machinsts. Picking a career is important, so is picking your friends, neighbors, and colleagues. Let me be clear, fuck the usless fucking paper pushers. At the end of the day all economies are really local. There is no real reason why the supply chain has to be global. That is bullshit propaganda from your central planners. Fuck em, they never have contributed to the trade of real good and services. it's high time we cleared out the useless middle men anyway.
Sure, there is no real reason why the supply chain has to be global, yet the paper pushers have made it global so that they can profit while eliminating alternatives to the global economy for most people. It's a recipe for disaster.
Brzezinzski referred to these as "chokeholds."
Fitting, no?
I suppose, but globalism is non sustainable. Fucks like Brzezinzski will find that it chokes them out with the rest of us.
Not the port workers problem!
Gun parts can be automatically milled in your kitchen. 3d printers are popping up all over the place.
Necessity is the mother of invention. For everything else, there's always the bicycle.
And M-16 sears will be $39.95 a gross. Yee-haw!
I expect that sooner or later - and probably sooner than later - the US supply chain is going to be the mirror image of Venezuela's. And that's if we're lucky. If we're unlucky, well - who knows what a society of heavily armed, Pharma-addled, culturally and morally bankrupt zombies will do.
Unionize. Demand fair wages.
Hold on - what's wrong with unions?
Workers have the right to freely and peaceably assemble and withhold labor if they think they can get a better deal. Employers have the right to fire the lot if they think they can get a better deal. In theory, that's capitalism. In practice the government is elbows deep into both ends.
being a scab can be downright onhealthy for a fella though
Someone asked you about the meaning of your avatar awhile back. Those same numbers also appeared on the Economist cover. Just wondering cause I looked them up and came across this:
11.5.11.3 is an IP address owned by DoD Network Information Center and located in Columbus (Northeast Columbus), United States (see map)
interesting. I was kind of assuming European formatted dates, but who know. Thanks for the info
They also own 11.3.11.5 apparently
https://db-ip.com/11.3.11.5
You are welcome!