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"Catastrophic Shutdown Of America's Supply Chain Looms" As West Coast Port Worker Talks Break Down

Tyler Durden's picture




 

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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Thu, 02/05/2015 - 18:14 | 5749393 Theta_Burn
Theta_Burn's picture

That was the unions purpose and it worked, it stopped practices of this nature, but somewhere along the line the unions themselves became what they were fighting against.

you need to take that outrage and look how our manufacturing base has been offshored, for 40yrs plus.

Stop thinking like a blue-collar idiot who thinks because you can drive a forklift you deserve 100K a yr. thats just fucking insane.

Now or never was 40 yrs ago when the soul of this nation was sold out, so long as the uneducated union worker got his triple rate everything was just fine with him...

 

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 00:29 | 5750619 Jethro
Jethro's picture

Hahahahaha.  I'm under no illusion as to what's coming down the pike.  I realized this when I was stationed in India.  You know what's funny?  I remember a dude from AT&T coming to the Embassy in New Delhi back in 1993, trying to secure business contracts with the local phone company to sell them copper wire.  I asked him why they weren't selling cell phones and towers?  Fucking stupid.  Why could I see the potential as a 20 year old Marine, and this AT&T dude not?  It's this type of tunnel vision that kills companies.

 Unions served their purpose, and outlived their usefulness before I was born.  Ask yourself this,  can you think of any other group of people so willing to sell their soul, abandon their ethics and morals, or be so eager to support communism than unions, all for the sake of an additional dollar per hour? It'd be funny if it weren't so tragic.

The simple fact is, the country can't afford all of the  social justice bullshit socialist progressives and union members demand, and have convinced the politicians to fund for the last 50 years.  When you're born into this world, nobody owes you a damned thing.  You gotta earn it cupcake.  

 

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 16:32 | 5748905 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Workers have a right to organize and bargain collectively. There is nothing "communist" about it. Quite the opposite, its their way of maximizing their own profit. Wasnt that the point?

If i am mistaken, tell me which law forbids workers from organizing?

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 16:51 | 5749020 Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus's picture

We could start with RICO.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 16:57 | 5749046 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Does not apply. Try antisemitism, terrorism or pedophilia.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:13 | 5749132 Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus's picture

Sure it does, in a pre-crime way.

Linear thought is not good for you.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:16 | 5749148 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

May we get a look at your hard drive, pre-criminal?

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:26 | 5749191 Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus's picture

That was a predictable reply.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:29 | 5749205 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Point is that you can accuse anyone of anything.

Yai, RICO, look at this paper i just wrote. That will work.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:56 | 5749324 Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus's picture

No, the point is that contemporary unions are in fact a criminal enterprise.

 

In my view, many of these unions shouldn't even exist, not because they're unions, but because if in fact unions were functioning for the benefit of the worker, they would have spent union funding training the rank and file for new skills and jobs in the new reality, not squandered union funds with bribes and promises never to be kept. But, that would then be the end useless, high-paying jobs that generated lots of slush.

 

 

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 18:05 | 5749355 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Ahem, main promise seems to be high salary and job stability. Isnt it? Are they not keeping it? Is that not what the fight is all about, workers get paid too much and cannot be fired?

What is this "job training" you mumble about? Robots could replace all of them. The union prevents that from happening.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:04 | 5749821 Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus's picture

.

Robots could replace all of them. The union prevents that from happening.

 

That's my point. By your reasoning we'd still be paying buggy whip makers and locomotive fireman, although the latter may be true.

I have no problem with reasonable wages and benefits, but the disconnect with reality on these things is beyond the pale. The core of a union is job security and a living wage by skilled workmen. Failing to adapt and train into new skills, even outside of the original skill-set, is a major flaw in the contemporary union mindset. No, it has devolved into an aggressive protection racket and dues extortion scheme that protects the union officials and not the rank and file.

 

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:39 | 5749930 Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus's picture

Hope you're gettin' scale for those down arrows.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 03:02 | 5750863 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

You need to start using self coherent arguments. Unions do as they promise, but lash at them as how they dont protect their members.

Later you lash at the very concept of port workers existing, as they could all be replaced by machines.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 11:14 | 5751743 Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus's picture

No, you should stop trying to defend the indefensible with circular arguments.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 12:45 | 5752117 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

What circular arguments? You accuse the unions of not protecting their members while in reality the union has provided them with job stability and high wages. You cant refute that, so instead attack the workers as being worthless, ignorant and deserving of poverty. Or paint the whole thing as being illegal, anything to avoid the fact that the union does exactly what it promises.

Allowing only connected people to have jobs at the port is exactly what protectionism is all about. The same Zerohedgers that deride the workers for taking care of themselves and their friends would call for an end to free trade, to have high tarrifs and import quotas, and to deport all beaners from Kalifornia because they are not members of the protected group. Protecting their own?

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:05 | 5749089 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Oh i see downarrows. Whenever theres any article on zerohedge about minimum wage the pseudo randians come out in force with the meme that salary should be set by private negotiations between an employer and an employee.

But if two workers go to the interview together, it does not count. Cheating!

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:34 | 5749226 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

I don't know that much about Union Laws so I tried to pull some stuff together this week.

- National Labor Relations Act of 1935, Wagner Act, is a foundational statute of US labor law which guarantees basic rights of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining for better terms and conditions at work, and take collective action including strike if necessary.

At least one law amends that one.

- Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, Taft–Hartley Act, federal law that restricts the activities and power of labor unions. "...to provide additional facilities for the mediation of labor disputes affecting commerce, to equalize legal responsibilities of labor organizations and employers, and for other purposes..." The amendments enacted in Taft–Hartley added a list of prohibited actions, or unfair labor practices, on the part of unions

There is some law some where that forbids use of US Military and National Guard against Union Activities.

- The amendments required unions and employers to give 60 days' notice to each other before they may undertake strikes or other forms of economic action...
- President George W. Bush invoked the law in connection with the employer lockout of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union during negotiations with West Coast shipping and stevedoring companies in 2001.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 18:01 | 5749350 juggalo1
juggalo1's picture

Unfortunately the contract ended in July of last year, so there is no 60 day notification requirement.  That only works if you have a contract.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:55 | 5749314 Theta_Burn
Theta_Burn's picture

Wrong location..

 

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:57 | 5749331 Theta_Burn
Theta_Burn's picture

Yes they do.

For them and theirs, its been quite lucrative...

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:43 | 5749941 falconflight
falconflight's picture

The Unions shit on their membership, and only respond to them as much as they have to.  Union power is vested in its leadership and their access to political power (DemProg).  Period.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:46 | 5749953 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Long time union member here, but, unions were key to Communist, and for that matter National Socialist political power.  I saw video and photos of union members carrying Hammer and Sickle flags during OWS and other astro turf bowel movements.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 16:35 | 5748910 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

I don't know whether these guys are under-paid or over-paid.  I do notice the tone of class warfare in America, however, and as Warren Buffet noted years ago, his class has already won.

Why is it that $20,000,000 a movie is perfectly fine for a mediocre film actor, $15,000,000 a year is the norm for a guy who can fog a mirror and throw a baseball lefthanded, and $30,000,000 is seen as a fair price for some guy who sits in a lot of meetings as a CEO?  Meanwhile the median inflation-adjusted wage is below what it was 15 years ago for all the rest of us?

The thing I really don't understand is that most Americans think, "Whatever the Market will bear" for athletes and entertainers, and we buy the line that Executives need to be "incentivized" and they really couldn't be arsed to roll out of the sack for 6-figures or even 7-figure salaries.  But when somebody whose job involves the risk of being pureed starts to make as much as a mid-level corporate manager, that's highway robbery and cause for outcry.

In no way am I defending the Longshoremen.  Corruption in those unions was a byword before "On The Waterfront."  I'm talking about the sniping at all the people whose earnings created what we used to think of as the middle class in America.  We decry the demise of the middle class, but every time anyone demands that they be paid in a middle-class fashion, or even according to terms agreed upon through negotiation, it's "Socialism" or some damn thing.  You can't have it both ways.  The Elites can't be allowed to extract all the wealth of a country and completely ignore their contractual obligations, and then somehow we still have a functioning middle class.

And although the Unions have beeen in many cases subverted by criminals looking to manipulate the pension funds, how is that different from what has happened to the retirement funding for everyone else?  Besides, it's A-OK for management to organize (that's what incorporation is), but it's foul play when workers do it too?  You can't have only one side at a negotiating table, or you get what we're getting.

Pitting the middle class against the lower and lower-middle class has worked out brilliantly for the Elites.  People all think they deserve more, but their lousy neighbor and their lazy brother-in-law should work for slave wages and shut up and be thankful for it.  Yeah, but they forget that to somebody else, they themselves are the neighbor or b.i.l.  The Elites, on the other hand, know this all too well and take huge advantage of it.

I'm lucky because I've developed a set of skills that is rare and in demand by corporate interests.  I pretty much set my price by what my competitors charge, and if somebody doesn't want to pay it, fine; good luck finding somebody else who can do the task and will take less money.

But you sure as hell wouldn't catch me unloading a ship for even $200,000 a year.  Never mind schooling your brats for $80,000, with the licensure, educational requirements (and debt) and general working conditions.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 16:45 | 5748984 juggalo1
juggalo1's picture

There are several problems with the longshoremen union.  First the wages are above market value, so qualified workers can't get the job.  Second, there is no non-union alternative to keep the unions honest.  Third their position at the gateway to the economy gives them undue bargaining power.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 16:58 | 5749053 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Ahem, market prices are whatever prices are getting paid. If they get paid above market prices, the market prices were not the market prices.

Fuck you sophist.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:03 | 5749085 juggalo1
juggalo1's picture

So if a qualified worker wanted a job unloading vessels for $100k per year (substantially less than what is being offered) he could get it?  No?  Then it's not the market rate.  I work a clerk job, and for a similar union job in the port I would make 3 times my current salary.  If the markets aren't free to all willing participants, then it's not a free market, and hence there is no market price.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:14 | 5749138 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

I cant just go and get any job i might be qualified for. Some honcho needs to like me enough for that, for whatever reason. And lots of people get jobs they are not qualified for but then again, that is perfectly legal. Theres no law against non qualified people working, or against qualified people being underemployed.

The protection racket you attack at the ports is allowed in a free market because it is done by private actors. It is not different than Walmart cornering a market because of their sheer size.

 

 

 

 

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:07 | 5749830 Pareto
Pareto's picture

juggalo - dead on.  longshoreman are bereft of competition - of any kind.  so its not a free market - therefore, its impossible to argue that any price under these circumstances is market based.  that the port can hold an entire nation hostage to self serving interests effectively destroys the notion of available substitutes and so on.  just more "gimme gimme gimme".  its not a market - its the same shit show its always been.  fuck em.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 22:42 | 5750306 Oldwood
Oldwood's picture

Unions are a government protected monopoly. The term monopoly means explicitly that they are exempt from competition, therefore are NOT market wages. I'm all for anyone, from a football star to executive to dockworker getting all they can earn in a free market. A free market means that any person can demand and earn the highest wage OR price they can get, and every employer AND customer can hire any person OR buy anything they desire.

I have no problem with collective bargaining. As an employer I don't necessarily like it but I would never deny it. What I will NEVER support is anyone's right to prevent me from hiring who I want, when I want as long as I am living up to any employment contract. Unions that try to prevent an employer from hiring free people for voluntary and mutually agreed wages should be considered a criminal act.

Either this is a free country or it is not. Government enforced tyranny through its direct appendages Or through its protected unions is NOT freedom. No person or government should have to power to force anyone to hire or pay anyone other than freely contractually agreed.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 22:46 | 5750315 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

oldwood there you go again. stop a second  & look around, this is no free country...oh and smile for the cameras across the street and don't look up at the drone watching you and damn it pay your taxes.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:12 | 5749125 roadhazard
roadhazard's picture

"undue bargaining power" If you don't use the leverage you have then you are a moron.  The rich know what I am talking about.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 18:04 | 5749364 juggalo1
juggalo1's picture

See, the thing is it doesn't bother me so much that they make probably 3 times including benefits what a comparable worker would make inland.  I'm upset that they are slowing down the trade, and threatening my job to protect theirs.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:33 | 5749906 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

I don't understand your comment.  If there is no non-union alternative, then how can you say the wages are above market value?  Seems their wages ARE the market value, seeing as they're the only ones in the market.  And notwithstanding their hefty pay packets, it's still apparently been a lot cheaper to offshore US manufacturing and import it through those ports.  Can't have been that much of a deal-breaker.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:50 | 5749963 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Cogent post, much appreciated, even if the union controlled ports are only able to because of federal statutory intervention and protection, mostly by the DemProgs.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 16:38 | 5748946 ZeroPoint
ZeroPoint's picture

So would this be considered economic terrorism?? Is Barry Dronestrikes going to round up the teamsters to defend 'Murica?

 

 

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 16:38 | 5748949 eyesofpelosi
eyesofpelosi's picture

The union mafia at its best. I'm from michigan and have endured the scum unions for decades. The bastards would be tolerable if:

The unions, all unions I'm bitching about

If they paid taxes
If they stayed out of politics
If they weren't organized crime
If they actually benefited those they represent

Ya know, unions aren't all that different than congress...huh, how about that...

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 16:49 | 5749013 Uncle Remus
Uncle Remus's picture

Nuke. Orbit. Sure.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 16:51 | 5749024 Yao
Yao's picture

US Manufacturing?  What manufacturing?  Is the Silicon Valley breathlessly awaiting shipping containers packed to the gills with shiny new electrons?  

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 16:57 | 5749052 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

The only thing the US exports to China are top-secret military designs, ideas for mass produced products that cannot be made at a competitive price in the US, movies and music so the Chinese can pirate them, and GMO agriculture products that the Chinese have not (YET) banned.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:52 | 5749972 cheech_wizard
cheech_wizard's picture

Neil Stephenson pretty much nailed it back in 1992 when he wrote Snow Crash...

When it gets down to it — talking trade balances here — once we've brain-drained all our technology into other countries, once things have evened out, they're making cars in Bolivia and microwave ovens in Tadzhikistan and selling them here — once our edge in natural resources has been made irrelevant by giant Hong Kong ships and dirigibles that can ship North Dakota all the way to New Zealand for a nickel — once the Invisible Hand has taken away all those historical inequities and smeared them out into a broad global layer of what a Pakistani brickmaker would consider to be prosperity — y'know what? There's only four things we do better than anyone else:
music
movies
microcode (software)
high-speed pizza delivery

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 16:53 | 5749034 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

Oh Nooooooo!  Now I may have to wait until summer in order to buy my Vietnamese made beach towel, my sand bucket and shovel made in Malaysia, my grill made in South Korea, and my lawn chair made in China!  I am so used to buying them, and all my other summer stuff, in the middle of February!

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:31 | 5749214 silverer
silverer's picture

Don't worry, you'll find it all on Craigslist.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:38 | 5749927 falconflight
falconflight's picture

I try to buy Viet, rather than Chinese.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:11 | 5749117 Son of Loki
Son of Loki's picture

Noth Koreans gotta be behind this stuff.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:12 | 5749130 crzyhun
crzyhun's picture

Union rapskallions!

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:16 | 5749145 European American
European American's picture

A great excuse for not buying "Made in China" crap.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:20 | 5749162 silverer
silverer's picture

They really need a strike, huh?  I guess the the last time around, when Obama made special provisions for them to be exempt from Obamacare and receive solid gold health plans valued at a cost that most Americans could live on as their only income, just wasn't enough.  I guess the days about being thankful for what you have doesn't cut it when you see a chance to screw people to get more.  Time for a national work strike by all the non-union workers of this country.  We'll see where it all lands then.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 18:04 | 5749360 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

jeez. "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. "

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:01 | 5749814 Pareto
Pareto's picture

.......yeah fuck.  aint life grand?

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:17 | 5749865 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Yeah, WTF. Life ain't that grand from where I sit.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:33 | 5749910 Pareto
Pareto's picture

yup.  its getting tough for a lot of people i know.  marginalized.  folks are fucking broke - its really that simple. the concept of saving - isn't even in their realm.  the prospect of wealth is a pipe dream.  they are diminished by the day -  hard working people eeking to get by is all.  and its going to get worse before it gets better.  way worse.  cheers

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:32 | 5750086 Unix
Unix's picture

silverer, where the hell do I sign up for that...count me in! FUCK

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:32 | 5749216 RadioactiveRant
RadioactiveRant's picture

Probably a lesson in diversity, 43% is a huge egg in one basket.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:34 | 5749228 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

"Hey, you want your plastic cereal bowls and your kids toys?

Fuck you. Pay me."

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 17:59 | 5749341 SmittyinLA
SmittyinLA's picture

Most of the port workers are immigrants and aliens, fuck em

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 18:07 | 5749362 redwater
redwater's picture

Everything I know about dock workers is from Season 2 of The Wire.

http://youtu.be/9dqP_Vb1Ruw

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:32 | 5749902 serotonindumptruck
serotonindumptruck's picture

I recall an excellent scene from Quentin Tarrantino's Reservoir Dogs about dockworkers but I can't find it on youtube.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 18:28 | 5749472 Hannibal
Hannibal's picture

Good for stocks up, up,...up!

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 19:08 | 5749630 Ned Zeppelin
Ned Zeppelin's picture

I love an apocalyptic headline. 

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:28 | 5750074 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Me too, I start crashing if I don't see apocalyptic headlines, but I'm burning out on the emotional crystal meth it represents.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 19:11 | 5749642 22winmag
22winmag's picture

The South was right!

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 19:32 | 5749711 nachtliche
nachtliche's picture

It's understandable though, how can anyone live on $147k/year. Slave wages!

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:29 | 5750080 Unix
Unix's picture

Love your sarc!

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:04 | 5749822 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

Nationalize the ports.

Only “Terrorists” would stop Free Trade!!  
 

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:35 | 5749919 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Tongue in cheek, right?

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:51 | 5749966 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

LOL - that is a toughie.

“What is, is?”

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:26 | 5750066 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Gee, nationalize?  Moar gov't owned enterprise?

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:11 | 5749840 UnitedWallabies
UnitedWallabies's picture

What are unions, but monopolies? They aren't even hiding it -- their official goal is to maintain and raise the price of what the members areselling: their labor.

We would not accept Sony agreeing with Samsung to not undercut each other's TVs -- why do we allow port workers to make the same agreements among themselves and, worse, to violently enforce them?

We have anti-trust laws -- time to apply them to these guys too. If the US saw fit to block merger of Staples and Office Depot for fear of resulting entity dominating the market for office supplies, why do we not only tolerate, but encourage monopolies in transportation, construction, health care, law enforcement, education, firefighting labor markets?

We also have anti-racketeering laws -- why do we continue to pretend, that unions' violence is "isolated" and treat each incident separately? They are all influenced by "Corrupt Organization" and thus subject to RICO laws!

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:36 | 5749921 swmnguy
swmnguy's picture

I don't belong to a union.  But everything said about unions applies to corporations too.  If one side of the bargain can organize to negotiate as a group, the other side has to be allowed to also.  I'd be fine with eliminating unions right when we eliminate corporations in their current form.  What are they doing, other than maintaining and raising the price of what they are selling?  It's OK on one side, but not on the other?

Actually, I do favor eliminating the modern form of the corporation.  Return it to a temporary status, reviewed and renewed only as it can be shown to benefit the public.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:40 | 5749931 falconflight
falconflight's picture

We allow it because they wield contributions to in this case almost to the dollar, the DemProgs.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:13 | 5749853 Jorgen
Jorgen's picture

BHO can declare this strike as a national security matter and they will have to go back to work. Or else.

(He can also sign an emergency executive order making all strikes illegal)

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:16 | 5749862 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

Reagan set precedent. 

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:27 | 5750072 Unix
Unix's picture

Oblahblah would actually celebrate the shutdown, one more nail in America's coffin, trust me!

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:28 | 5749889 Bunga Bunga
Bunga Bunga's picture

Take that Tyler:

Why You Shouldn't Worry About The Baltic Dry Index Hitting A 29 Year Low

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/02/05/why-you-shouldnt-worr...

Building ghost fleets is bullish for the economy.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:32 | 5749903 Grouchy Marx
Grouchy Marx's picture

It won't hurt manufacturers. It will hurt importers who call themselves manufacturers.

Which sadly, is most of US "manufacturing" today. 

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:34 | 5749912 falconflight
falconflight's picture

I call bullshit.  The federal mediation and conciliation service is awaiting, along with the Nat'l Labor Relations Board, Obama's signal and the rest will be history.  These unions are front and center of the DemProg "Organizing for America" shock troops, and the fix is already in.  Yawn

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:34 | 5749916 Monetas
Monetas's picture

My mother-in-law .... makes $70 per hour .... driving new Mercedes-Benz's .... from the dock in Ensenada .... to the parking lot in Sauzal !

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:52 | 5749969 Pareto
Pareto's picture

This article - for sure - will end up in the year-end of ZH's top 100 articles of 2015.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:52 | 5749971 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

BULLSIH

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 20:56 | 5749984 walküre
walküre's picture

BDI at all time lows. Yup, good time to shut down the ports in CA.Will Portland, Tacoma, Seattle and Greater Vancouver pick up the slack? Most of it probably. Bullish for rail cos.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:08 | 5750022 Billy Shears
Billy Shears's picture

I know, I know, I should give a shit but I don't.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:11 | 5750026 tarabel
tarabel's picture

 

 

You know, I think I'm with the Unions on this one.

Not because I like corrupt, lazy, overpaid derelicts but because shutting down the Asian logistics chain would be real good for American manufacturing and real bad for the Chinese economy.

There is a lot more American manufacturing going on than people realize- but it is mostly small name companies that nobody has ever heard of before. Good to get their products onto empty shelves nationwide.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:21 | 5750049 runnymede
runnymede's picture

Stop worrying! The union bosses just flexing their muscles to get a little payola and it will all go away. Nothing to see here. Non-story in a couple weeks. Free money is the answer to everything if you're one of the chosen. The union bosses are just barely outside the money distribution circle. They're 1.5%ers 

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:23 | 5750059 Unix
Unix's picture

...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.

Unions are a scourge, FUCK this greedy bastards, along with the pols and banksters!

They are all raping us!

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:34 | 5750093 cannonfodder
cannonfodder's picture

See my comment just below yours.  The numbers in this report appear to be way too high.  Could it be that the media is intentionally misleading you?  Who benefits if everyone in the middle class is fighting amongst themselves?

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 22:51 | 5750326 yellowsub
yellowsub's picture

And yet who the hell would have thought Hostess truck drivers delivering Twinkies made 6 figures salaries.  All the while their Baker counterparts made 2/3rds less!  

 

 

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 00:02 | 5750554 Unix
Unix's picture

nope, not on this, i know some unionistas...fuck them!

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:32 | 5750067 Monetas
Monetas's picture

Red sky in the moarning .... sailors take woarning .... Longshoaremen's strike .... Prepper's delight !

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:28 | 5750075 cannonfodder
cannonfodder's picture

I don't know where the Associated Press found those numbers, but a quick check on PayScale.com shows something considerably less than $147,000 annually:

Male Dock Workers number significantly more than their female counterparts, and average earnings in this role come out to $13.48 per hour in the United States. Health benefits are not enjoyed by everyone in this line of work, and one in three lack any coverage at all. Medical benefits are reported by a majority and dental coverage is claimed by just over a half.

Median annual income is $34,188

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:35 | 5750098 Monetas
Monetas's picture

Had to down vote ya .... those numbers seem low .... is Payscale.com .... in on the Obama data fix ?

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 15:37 | 5752726 cannonfodder
cannonfodder's picture

I’ve consulted PayScale.com many times in the past couple of years and their reported incomes are consistent with most of the wage and salary tables of contractors and employers we deal with.  My own boss, with an office of 40 architects and engineers barely makes more than $160,000 per year – I see the annual reports.  If the AP report is accurate, the government should be more than happy to collect taxes and fees from such high paid workers, and should encourage everyone to find such lucrative employment.  That $18,000,000,000,000 debt pales in light of these reported incomes.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 00:08 | 5750567 Unix
Unix's picture

from LA times

McKenna said employers offered a contract with fully paid healthcare and wages that would increase about 3% each year. The maximum pension would rise to $88,800 per year, McKenna said. Under the previous deal, dockworkers made between $25.71 and $41.48 an hour, depending on skill and experience. That's before overtime and extra pay for nighttime work.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:34 | 5750091 Hengist
Hengist's picture

Why not replace them with cheaper illegal alien labour, it's a win win for the Dems.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 21:44 | 5750130 UGrev
UGrev's picture

Maybe this will finally break people...  

No one pays attention to the Fed lies

No one pays attention to the polictians' lies

No one pays attention (or cares) about the fraud in this administration (and the ones before it). 

But they'll fucking pay attention when they can't buy shit.. mark my words. 

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 22:01 | 5750200 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Trans-Pacific Partnership

https://ustr.gov/tpp

Stop whining you fucking union liberals, you voted twice for this WH jackass. Now he is blaming Christianity to further UN Maitreya religion.

Maitreya's appearance in Nairobi, Kenya, 1988. Stop at 3.42m to see actor in 1988.

The timing couldn’t have been enhanced with Dalai Lama visiting our Negro WH servant called TOTUS.

Maitreya Project at 9:00m, Master Ring Sing places a knick knack on the head of a cat in a dog suit.

/sarc

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 22:05 | 5750210 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Did you ever seen the photographs of the Dalai Lama made to exit (some years ago) the Wicked House via the service entrance?  To see him having to navigate the garbage cans and piles of snow.  I hate that filthy pig in human skin, Baby Doc Barack.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 01:08 | 5750700 pupdog1
pupdog1's picture

The DL probably cracked a couple of jokes about it. Amazing guy, and several million times smarter than the Kenyan. He is also rumored to actually have a moral compass.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 07:20 | 5751041 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

You mean the Dalai Lama, self appointed god and owner of medieval Tibet and its people's for all eternity? Like our dear Lord Rothschild but with slanted eyes, annoyed at the chinese audacity to kick him out of his throne? Yeah, great role model.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 22:06 | 5750214 Aussiekiwi
Aussiekiwi's picture

Legislation already exists to deal with this situation, brand the ring leaders as domestic terrorists an arrest and jail them, easy, fixed.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 22:52 | 5750335 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Not a snowball's chance in hell.  They're directly connected to the DemPervs straight into the Wicked House.  Surly you jest?

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 01:31 | 5750732 Aussiekiwi
Aussiekiwi's picture

I do

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 22:18 | 5750242 HYPERTlGER
HYPERTlGER's picture

The gradual absolute capitalist rules for revolution

1. Corrupt the young, get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial. Destroy their ruggedness.

2. Get control of all means of publicity.

3. Get people's minds off their government by focusing their attention on athletics, sexy books and other trivialities.

4. Divide the people into hostile groups by constantly harping on controversial matters of no importance.

5. Destroy the people's faith in their natural leaders by holding the latter up to contempt, ridicule and obloquy.

6. Always preach true democracy, but seize power as fast and as ruthlessly as possible.

7. By encouraging government extravagance, destroy its credit and produce fear of inflation with rising prices and general discontent.

8. Foment unnecessary strikes in vital industries, encourage civil disorders, and foster a lenient and soft attitude on the part of government toward such disorders.

9. By specious argument cause the breakdown of the old moral virtues, honesty, sobriety, continence, faith in the pledged word, ruggedness.

10. Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext, with a view to confiscating them and leaving the populace helpless.

You do not need firearms but the right to self defence can be taken away once you are reduced mentally and physically into baby seals and at the mercy of the secret handshake clubbers.

"Do not worry about your beard (fantasy or 0) when you are about to lose your head (reality or 1)"-Sun Tzu

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 22:30 | 5750273 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

shut em all down, we might just be surprised when we hardly notice. plastic toys and moar electronic toys we got plenty of already..we could do with a year without trade..while their at it kill the tv cable co's too.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 22:57 | 5750355 Mongoose
Mongoose's picture

Unfortunately Overmed, there is more to it than just the useless crap. There are things like electric motors that do things like drive the water pumps for your local municiple water works. Oh and not to mention sewer lift pumps, etc as well as control equipment for those and lots of other items that are needed to provide even the most basic necessities. Of course a lock out for a lenghty time would be a bonanza for your local motor, electrical repair, machine shops, etc, but it won't be cheap.

Not sure why this slow down, of this length, is being tolerated.

 

Back to killin' snakes

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 23:08 | 5750398 overmedicatedun...
overmedicatedundersexed's picture

mongoose maybe that is the problem - we import stuff we should be making here. and I think youknow why that is..kill the banksters and international mega corps would be a good start at a normal economy.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 00:32 | 5750635 talisman
talisman's picture

Sanctions imposed on Russia have made Russia come to the same conclusion, and they are acting accordingly

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 07:37 | 5751058 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

The point is trading for the sake of trading. To forge (force) ties and unite (bind) the world.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 22:50 | 5750329 falconflight
falconflight's picture

Capitalist?  Me thinks you project bordering on pathological.  You've described Marxist, Leninist, Alinski, Piven, DemProg doctrine right out of Their own book.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 23:19 | 5750436 Bangalore Torpedo
Bangalore Torpedo's picture

Hey shit for brains.  This is what the fucking Russians did.  This is from the CPUSA playbook.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 23:20 | 5750439 Bangalore Torpedo
Bangalore Torpedo's picture

Unions of America...Unite in the new world order of global poverty!

 

Fucking UNion idiots.

Thu, 02/05/2015 - 23:39 | 5750494 Buster Cherry
Buster Cherry's picture

No problema.

 

California has pleeenty of beaners that will do the work regular Americanos won't do.....

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 00:15 | 5750585 ufos8mycow
ufos8mycow's picture

Open up a bunch of ports right across the border in Mexico. You could get a Mexican dock worker for $12/day and a chicken. With NAFTA truck drivers bringing the cargo into the US the cost to ship my Chinese made sex dolls would plummet.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 00:22 | 5750605 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

Central Banks are screwed BIG time and I fully agree with the scapegoat theory that this article ends with. We have just evidenced 29 successive business quarters of contractions in every market in the Western World. The supply chain is bound to shut down at some point and after this length of time catastrophic shutdown is certain. Frankly, we only have approximately one month left before everything goes catastrophic IMHO. This article is a very important indicator of the abyss we are about to enter and the assertion that the CB is searching for a convenient scapegoat is wholeheartedly apt.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 01:13 | 5750704 pupdog1
pupdog1's picture

These monkeys make more money than God in CA, and always have. Along with the prison guard union workers (the union that even Aaaaah-nald couldn't bust).

Lock 'em out, offer half of their former salary, and every one of them would be back. Why? Most are uneducated, and couldn't get Jack Shit anywhere else.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 02:19 | 5750804 beechmi
beechmi's picture

So true....I know a couple dock workers who live near me in Rancho Palos Verdes and make well into the 6 figures. Their education ended with high school, and although they are nice guys, neither could get a job at McDonalds.

Oh, and did I mention that their healthcare coverage and retirment benefits would piss off a federal employee. This racket needs to be stopped....it is absolutely ridiculous how much $$$ these guys take home.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 07:12 | 5751035 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Steve Jobs never finished college, only had a high school education, and yet he died a rich man. There is no justice in this world where some high school graduates get to have a good life...Why cant the government stop them, there oughta be a law!

sarc/

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 01:15 | 5750707 sumosamurai
sumosamurai's picture

So much fot the just in time inventory proponents. Just an excuse to blame the recession on someone else besides Bush.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 01:38 | 5750744 DymanicDoug
DymanicDoug's picture

Was in Vancouver this week-end, there was only one frieghter loading in Burrard Basin, nothing at the huge Cargill docks in N Van...only three at anchor, 90% of everything moves in a great ship only most of the shipping is sitting around Singapore...check out Google earth

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 01:44 | 5750755 are we there yet
are we there yet's picture

Look what unions did for Detroit.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 07:13 | 5751038 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Not the unions but Japan and Korea. Still in denial?

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 02:44 | 5750842 Victory_Garden
Victory_Garden's picture

Angrier and angrier have become the awakened militaries, and police forces. Angry about being used as throw-away pawns for the babylonian banksters that no more cares for them, as they would a used condom. Every day moar and moar professionals are seeing for themselves just exactly how they have been played and manipulated for evil bankster greed.

Moar and moar military and police are quietly discussing all of this insanity amongst themselves, and just how farked up things really are. Operation Vampire Killer is in full swing. They see clearly who ALL the corrupted slime bags from hell are. Thanks to the babylonian system of trace and tracking of every human being using things like nanobots in the food that has been consumed since 1990, they too are being tracked and located for mass extermination later. As they track innocent people, so also are they being tracked. There are moar than many moar every day who are taking an intense interest in exactly who and where these criminals are located at. Moar and moar in their own houses are closely watching them, and where they go daily. The world is just eager beaver waiting for the first stupid arsehole that fires the first shot.

When the balloon goes up, everybody will know who the babylonian banksters are and WHERE they are at. Tens of thousands will be dispatched to go after all these farking criminals, especially families like the bushes, clintons, cheneys, rothschilds, rockefellers, and the rest of the long list of other CFR, and unnoble types. No hole deeply hidden in, or paid for mercenary army will stop those who seek vengeance from ALL these unholy criminals that are responsible for all the chaos and evil in the world of Love.

The evil ones that will receive the nastiest of nasty angry shark frenzy justice and the most violent of deaths, will be the globalist stooges, clowns, and puppet minions that do things like use psychobabble warfare, or spy on their own people to further the wicked satanic evil horracious bankster agendas of world domination, and world population elimination. These idiots are too stupid to realize they are disposable lighters. When used up, they'll be tossed into hells trash heap also. There is no other way for these losers among humanity. Who trusts a traitor?

Here ye here ye, all Slaves for the babylonians, escape to the winning side of history while you still can, for all your actions, words, and deeds are KNOWN. God/Love is calling you to come back to the Holy House of Rightousness. There is absolutely positively NO escape from Karmic Justice. Ma At Knows all. Only fools believe they can outwit Universe.

The krapper full of banksters that refuses to flush is disgustingly filled, and overflowing. The nauseating stench of corruption is world-wide. When that bankster owned isrealli sponsored false flag event happens again in America or anywhere else, it will be time to flush this atrocious nasty evil shat down the drain of history forever.

The records are already had of who is who and where exactly to their front doorsteps the cretins carrying the water for these evil criminals and haters of humankind are hiding at. Every single clown that collects a pay check from the evil bankster owned corporate govts to do harm and violence, whether in written form or in physical ways, will be extinguished in the following weeks after this next bankster corporate govt isrealli mosad zionist false flag event to cause moar anger happens. The stupid farks just do not realize the fact that everybody knows WHO and WHAT this evil is.

What will happen is bikers and police, longshoremen and truckers, gangs and hippies, men and women from all over the globe will instantly unite to go after hells/satans anti-Christ minions, with high awards and merits going to those who scalp the most evil wicked ones of them all. The nations are just sick-n-tired of all the gosh darn bovine excrementlites and dis/mis-information that is constantly being slothly spewed all over the unwanting it masses.

Everything that is done and said not only goes down into a criminal govt collection agency, but moar importantly, every word, deed, and action is very exactly recorded on your Akashic record. The record of the souls life, lifetime after life time. Every hair on your head is counted and known and those who would scoff or deny this fact have never really experienced the other side of life. The spiritual side if you will. Most of the walking dead sadly have no knowledge of this simply because of the lack of proper Instruction, or real teaching experiences from the other side. Yes, it is real and yes, every single man-jack on the planet, woman-sally too, will eventually find this truth that is engraved in Stone.

It is best to lay up your treasures in that place where it will count the most, rather than in some satanist/luciferian evil banksters underground vault somewhere. If anyone thinks they can escape universal justice, it will eventually be known to you that this was the biggest most resounding mistake you ever made in life. Sure, many here will slam the messenger, but in the last breath of your life you will know this truth and by then, it will be too late. There is NO changing the permanent Akashic Record. You the Ka(Soul) will be on the scale, and the feather on the other side will not out weigh your heavy heart.

And then what? Well soul, how does 1,000 earth years of satans hell sound as you go through soul retraining in tortuous suffering to hopefully one day again if you pass the set requirements, might receive another chance at another life time to try and get it right this time. Hell is full of regretful and sorry repenting souls that slaved for babylon that just wish they could have another chance at another life on earth to get it right-up. To be square in all ones dealings while incarnated on earth. It is even far more desired than a glass of water for the dammed.

To be clear, the goal is a righteously lived life on the square. Long on good words, actions, and deeds.

There are only two masters. One is of the flesh, the other of the Spirit. One temporary, the other eternal.

Who is YOUR master?

Choose well.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 04:21 | 5750880 Salsipuedes
Salsipuedes's picture

One need not go beyond the "temporal world" to know you're right. You'll probably need another lifetime though and I can only wish you good luck with that.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 03:48 | 5750893 Manipuflation
Manipuflation's picture

Huh?      

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 02:44 | 5750844 Chad_the_short_...
Chad_the_short_seller's picture

Long oil

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 06:49 | 5751015 Midnight Hour
Midnight Hour's picture

I am a union Man and proud of it. Have been selfemployed for more that 30 years, but I would not like to see hard Workers getting paid Peanuts while the useless Bankers and CTO's get paid in millons. Why is the US stuffed? No one earns a living Wage there. All that I can see is a slow race to the bottom. Those Wharfies deserve a rise as the economy is in a recovery mode. Isnd that what you are being told all the time?

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 23:52 | 5754580 Keyboard Kommando
Keyboard Kommando's picture

Eat shit and die, you union parasite bastard!

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 07:33 | 5751056 p00k1e
p00k1e's picture

Detroit unions got everyone – that is, you the others and me.

All of the unions there – public and private - had to be bailed out.  

While the unionists were getting high their elders squandered the loot.   

They stole from us.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 08:45 | 5751115 prefan4200
prefan4200's picture

"Union-led work slowdowns"

Of course it is.  All part of this administration's plan to create as much chaos and suffering for the American people as possible.  Predictable move.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 09:05 | 5751146 Rootin' for Putin
Rootin' for Putin's picture

But, if the ports shut down how will america ship all the things it makes?
Oh, right.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 09:37 | 5751230 DearLeaderMaobama
DearLeaderMaobama's picture

Fuck the unions.  Just hire people who are actually willing to work and send the union guys packing. 

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 10:02 | 5751360 Fed-up with bei...
Fed-up with being Sick and Tired's picture

THE HORROR, OH THE HORROR:

 

"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"

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 14:50 | 5752559 earnulf
earnulf's picture

Holy Shit

 

 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.

 

So in five years, they will be making an average of 169,000 a year in salary, getting 45,000 a year in employer paid health care and an annual pension of 90,000 when they retire.  

 

Holy Shit.

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 23:36 | 5754509 Keyboard Kommando
Keyboard Kommando's picture

Let the bastards strike, fire them, then start over! Fuck unions and the lazy bastards in them!

Fri, 02/06/2015 - 23:36 | 5754510 Keyboard Kommando
Keyboard Kommando's picture

Let the bastards strike, fire them, then start over! Fuck unions and the lazy bastards in them!

Thu, 02/12/2015 - 18:23 | 5777961 Keyboard Kommando
Keyboard Kommando's picture

Jerry Brown will save us all!

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!