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The "Catastrophic Shutdown Of America's Supply Chain" Begins: Stunning Photos Of West Coast Port Congestion
One week ago, when previewing what may be the first lockout of the West Coast Ports since 2002, we cited the Retail Industry Leaders Association who, realizing that failure to reach an agreement between the dockworker union and their bosses, the Pacific Maritime Association representing port management would lead to devastating consequences for the US retail industry, had several very damning soundbites:
- "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."
- "A west coast port shutdown would be an economic disaster."
- "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."
And the punchline: "The slowdown is already making life difficult, but a shutdown could derail the economy completely."
Just so readers have a sense of what is at stake, this is what the average dockworker 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). It is the overtime compensation to the total shown here, which grosses to over a quarter of a million dollars, that dockworkers are negotiating to raise or else the key US supply-chains gets it.
Incidentally, the demands of the dockworker union and their leverage is precisely the reason for the dramatic discrepancy we showed in the following chart:
In any case, as of last night, the choking of the US supply-chain has officially begin, when as the LA Times reported last night, "West Coast ports — including the nation's busiest in Los Angeles and Long Beach — will partially shut down for four days as shipping companies plan to dramatically slash dock work amid an increasingly contentious labor dispute."
More:
Terminal operators and shipping lines said that they would stop the unloading of ships Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday, because they don't want to pay overtime to workers who, they allege, have deliberately slowed operations to the point of causing a massive bottleneck. Thursday is Lincoln's Birthday and Monday is Presidents Day, which are holidays for the workers.
Slowing down work "amounts to a strike with pay, and we will reduce the extent to which we pay premium rates for such a strike," said Wade Gates, spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Assn., the employer group representing the shipping companies. The local union in Los Angeles and Long Beach has denied using slowdown tactics.
Accoring to the LA Times, it is not clear if the partial shutdown foreshadows a total closure of the ports. Fears of a lockout of dockworkers, who have been without a contract since July, have risen in the last week and the two sides haven't held talks since Friday. SF Gate was far more clear on what the dockworker action means: "West Coast ports to shut down 4 days amid labor dispute."
Work delays and stoppages over the past three months have caused mounting problems for Bay Area importers and small-business owners, who say they are losing money as trucks line up daily outside the Port of Oakland waiting for container ships anchored in San Francisco Bay to unload.
The shutting down of port operations is ironic because it’ll make the situation worse, said union officials who claimed the association canceled a negotiating session Wednesday and has not been available since last Friday.
“This is an effort by the employers to put economic pressure on our members and to gain leverage in contract talks,” said Robert McEllrath, president of the longshore and warehouse union. “The union is standing by ready to negotiate, as we have been for the past several days.”
Regardless of who is at fault for the (partial) shut down, one can't blame dockworkers for doing what Greece is actively doing at the same time in its own negotiations with Europe: maximizing its leverage. Because as Bank of America showed yesterday, in a piece dedicated precisely to this topic, nothing short of 3.5% of marginal US GDP is at steak, which translated into CAGR terms, means that the fate of America's estimated 3% growth in 2015 is suddenly in the hands of a few thousand port workers, and with that, whether or not the US has a recession.
Some more thoughts from BofA:
Could port activity grind to a halt?
Due to continued unsuccessful contract negotiations between West Coast port employers (Pacific Maritime Association) and workers (International Longshore and Warehouse Union), there is a growing risk of a shutdown/lockout at West Coast docks, possibly within days. This past weekend, ports temporarily halted operations, adding to uncertainty. In our view, although a port strike/lockout could weigh on operations and profitability in some industries, the economic fallout of a one-week strike is likely to be limited to a loss of $0.8-1.8bn, representing a 0.1-0.2% hit to annualized GDP growth in 1Q15.
Size matters
Since the fall, a notable disruption in activity at the ports has materialized, and the risk is the current delays could spiral into full-blown gridlock, or that employers could lock out workers. West Coast ports are an important component of US trade. As cited by our Transportation Analyst Ken Hoexter, the value of total traffic at West Coast ports (waterborne, air and land) accounts for 12% of GDP. However, drilling down specifically to goods arriving/departing by water vessels (and hence, impacted by the labor dispute) reveals a much smaller share, only 3.5% of GDP or roughly $600bn, as of 2014.
Gauging the economy-wide risk during a shutdown
The economic fallout of a port shutdown is challenging to measure and depends heavily on the technique of analysis. Economic impact studies of West Coast port shutdowns have yielded loss estimates as high as $2bn per day. However, analysis by Peter Hall of the University of Waterloo and by the US Congressional Budget Office criticized such techniques as they fail to account for the ability for firms to substitute to alternative transportation routes, resulting in inflated loss estimates. Instead, according to research published by the CBO in 2006, the fallout is likely much lower, roughly $65mn to $150mn per day if Los Angeles and Long Beach ports were to shut down for a week in 2004. To get a sense of what the risks are in today, we gross that figure up to account for higher trade volumes, and include all West Coast ports. Our back of the envelope calculation suggests the daily loss to GDP would be $150-350mn per day, or $0.8-1.8bn per week. That would represent 0.1-0.2% hit to annualized 1Q15 GDP growth.
Learning from the past: short-term pain is likely
If history is any guide, a temporary port shutdown would acutely hurt the trade sector in the short term, but would not threaten to derail the recovery. In 2002, port workers at 29 West Coast ports were locked out for roughly 10 days in October, before President Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act to reopen the ports.
What could go wrong?
We highlight two key scenarios that may lead to greater downside risk relative to our base case:
- A protracted disruption could trigger non-linear (accelerating) economic costs as temporary contingency measures run their course, resulting in worsening supply chain disruptions. President Obama could intervene by invoking the Taft-Hartley Act as was done in 2002, but it is not clear if or how quickly the White House would be willing to step into a labor dispute this time around.
There is uncertainty regarding the capacity of alternative transportation routes. Extensive use of air freight and Canadian/Eastern ports may lead to capacity constraints at those sites, limiting the ability of industry to successfully substitute to alternative supply chains for an extended period.
So the bottom line is that nobody really knows what will happen if the "partial" stoppage becomes a permanent one, as dockworkers try lever their influence on the US economy (which according to financial comedy TV is so strong, it should have no problem to meet their demands, right?), but it is safe to say that the final outcome will be somewhere between the "catastrophic" devastation for the economy which the retail industry predicts, and anywhere up to a 3.5% hit to the GDP, which in turn means an economic recession, if only temporary.
One thing, however, about which there is no doubt at all, is the unprecedented congestion that has slammed the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach harbor: that is very much real, as can be seen on the series of photos below courtesy of Mike Kelley. From his blog:
As anyone who follows my work knows, I'm fascinated by industry and infrastructure. For the past few weeks, a labor dispute has been unfolding at the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. After flying over the area while coming in to land at LAX, I saw all of these giant container ships anchored offshore and instantly knew that I had to photograph it.
The next day I called my pilot and said 'when is the soonest we can go up?!' Less than 24 hours later we were in the air. It was one of the most exciting experiences I've had doing aerial photography - being that far out at sea, with the huge swells underneath you, and these massive, massive container ships everywhere was like living a scene out of Walter Mitty's life.
Cargo ships have been backed up for weeks on end at the ports of LA and Long Beach amid a labor dispute.
The size of these ships blows the mind; many of them are over a thousand feet long.
We photographed them from anywhere between 200 and 5,500 feet, and even at this height the enormous size was something else entirely.
The haze and setting sun created an ethereal mood to all of the pictures
Cargoes from around the world are backed up right now
I've never seen ANYTHING like this, even rush hour at the 405 doesn't look so bad.
Colorful and massive, this ship is over 1000 feet from end to end.
From this angle, the scale and size of the city and ships becomes quickly apparent
* * *
Finally keep in mind that to many economists, or at least those who realize that the US economy is in a far worse shape than what official government data represents, an "exogenous" event like a West Coast port strike, just like a "Polar Vortex" is precisely what the doctor ordered. After all, what better scapegoat for the lack of growth than a few thousand dockworkers who are merely leveraging capitalism as much as they can... even if it means shutting down key US economic supply-chains in the process.
h/t @Theonlyexpert
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that amount is what you need to live on the west coast comfortably, the last of the middle class (Mohicans) are holding out.
But we all know how this story ends.
Legalized extortion!
~$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)."
Fuck the bastards..."~
Oh, I disagree. I call that a "living wage". Especially if you have a few kids headed for college, a mortgage, maybe a second vacation home or an RV, or some other hobby that requires money. They deserve whatever they can get out of the system based on their particular set of skills or talents. The fact that they use a union to exact those wages from the port, (who in turn charges the shippers, who charge the container owners, who charge the manufacturers), somehow isn't part of your "fuck the bastards" equation.
I say "Good on 'yer!" to these striking workers.. I would question the union's timing, but maybe they just got tired of waiting for the port to step up and make the offer right. Whatever.
I also support the port's right to sack each and every one of said "bastards", and fill their posts with scabs, (if they can). Who in theory can then themselves unionize, and the whole process starts anew. Perhaps in the interim shippers get sick of this nonsense and collectively open a separate port facility. (Ain't competition great?)
Populism isn't always all that it's cracked up to be.
Go look at what the CEO's make. Oldest trick in the book. Some corporate friendly "journalist" releases half baked report to turn the common folk on eachother.
Between automation and high cost of living they should be getting as much as they can if it means CEO's get less. I bet CEO's at the average shipping port are still making more than 100x the average shlep salary.
You're telling the wrong bastards to go fuck themselves.
If Reagan were President he would fire all the union workers.
Come to think about it, why not just have some Mexicans do the work for minimum wage? Isnt that what Obama's amnesty is all about?
~"If Reagan were President he would fire all the union workers."~
And I would support him. But you don't know your Reagan. Here's what you should have said:
"If Reagan were President he would fire all the government union workers."
Collective bargaining is perfectly fine when you have equal "sparring partners", for lack of a better expression. But government workers are poor representatives of the people's interest when they are in essence bargaining with themselves a against the interests of very people they should be championing. Why do you think we have such problems with government unions today? Who defends the taxpayer when a government union negotiates with government workers? What recourse is there for the people other than to fire the lot of them to bring costs back under control?
BTW, Obama's amnesty is about changing demographics in red states to forever take control of elections for the socialists/Marxists. Hence the secret placement of illegals, (undocumented foreign nationals), and fighting tooth and nail against voter identification. If you are reading the score card in the bottom of the third, he's actually done it. But the ball game isn't over and said socialist/Marxists haven't factored in the Law of Unintended Consequences. Get a box of Cracker Jacks and stay tuned.
You got that right.. fire those fuckers.. all of them. Send them to the UE line and hire people who will actually work.. and NO MORE FUCKING UNIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Be nice now! Remember you're wkorth watever you can extort. We should all be payed that well.
That's the sticking point ... their high end health plans are threatened by the 40% Obamacare tax as they are "too good" ,,, This is an Obamacare strike...
Being in the Mafia has its rewards.
hope floats?
Speed 2: Cruise Control
This is insane!!
Anyone notice the dollar stores and walmarts are starting to get empty?
Do we really need all these plastic trinkets?
Too much real tooling was exported to China. We are likely joined at the hip much more than people realize. How many parts go into making a internal combustion engine? How many of those parts are not essential? What percentage is made in China?
This is how currency wars turn into trade wars.
Regards,
Cooter
I know for a fact automotive production lines are already shutting down.
We lack the capability of creating the parts ourselves due to our lack of foresight?
Well...
It will be even a better day when weapons manufacturer production lines shut down due to lack of parts.
That's okay you still can buy goods with worthless paper. We give them worthless paper and they supply a finished product.
When and if a collapse happens, all paper will be worth nothing.
Yes. That's where I go to buy my wife's Valentine gift.
Empty of what? Useless trinkets and crap?
Bananas! Our former Repewblik needs a steady supply of them.
Anyone notice the dollar stores and walmarts are starting to get empty?
Good. That is great news. They will become emptier as excess inventory is adsorbed and the overstock is used up.
Perhaps we will be lucky and some of these stores will lay off their employees and shut their doors for good. There are far too many of these corporate chain stores in the first place. Perhaps Main Street shops will open to replace them.
Unemployment needs to INCREASE dramatically and the Welfare Rolls need to swell to even larger unprecdented levels in order to STARVE THE BEAST.
Perhaps the unemployed will get off of their ass and become self employed, providing goods and services to their local communities as a result.
Fuck the Corporatocracy and fuck Wall Street.
Chinese trinkets are mostly unnecessary. We have 3D Printers available for enterprising and innovative small domestic producers which can utilize widely available waste products which can be recycled instead of filling up the landfills as refuse.
The scrapyards are paying $30 per Ton for Scrap "Tin" which can be remachined domestically rather than shipped overseas at a substantial energy cost. The major problem, the current stumbling block, is cheap energy which allows the FAT and inefficient economy to continue operating. It takes energy to move FAT. In fact fat people are amongst the strongest people whom I have encountered. I could not move 150 lbs of excess weight throughout an entire day relentlessly. But they do as the carry that weight upon their skeletal frame. They need to lose that weight and so does our economy.
So I am pleased that the temporary low costs of energy will continue to exacerbate this problem as it ultimately works to bring about the collapse of the corporatocracy to an earlier demise because what cannot be continued will not be continued. The whipsaw affect in Energy Prices will be realized as soon as the American Shale Oil Companies are out of business due to being overleveraged in DEBT and declare bankruptcy. Then the Saudis will turn off the spigots and Oil Prices will soar to unprecedented heights.
As a result of rising energy expenses we will not afford shipping our scrap materials overseas to be remachined into useful goods. Then imports will become increasingly expensive due to rising energy costs. We will have no choice but to either manufacture domestically or to do without. This will be the renaissance of American Industry, without corporations, but instead with small manufacturing shops with innovative entrepenuers.
Our economy needs to be lean, mean and efficient for any hope of American competitiveness to return.
Yeah baby. It will not bother me at all to watch Wal~Marts and Dollar Stores close. The longshoremen will become less needed, less in demand, and irrelevant.
Starve that beast which has made us fat, lazy, self entitled, and non industrious.
Next thing to picture... empty Wallmart shelves !
cool
a new place for the homeless
to sleep...
If EBT was shut down, Walmart would close in less than a week
...and Alaskan Salmon, packed in China.
I presume the perishables are able to remain refrigerated until we can automate our ports like everybody else has.
Do not ever, I repeat ever consume any food item made, packaged or processed in China!
As if buying food made in the US by illegal alien workers is any better. Or better yet buying food made by minimum wage zit faces at a restaurant that don't give a shit.
Didn't Tyler Durden fart on meringues and piss in the lobster bisque at his restaurant?
Yes Tyler did.
Long Fight Club. (I'd uparrow that comment if you had not started with a Blockquote as you are correct.)
Why do the residents of China's major cities live longer than Americans?
Must not be something I need to worry my pretty head about since the MSM isn't talking about it. /s
lol this is literally the first i've head of this mess thanks tyler.
Right here.
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/GFDEGDQ188S
So now we know what Musks next bullshit excuse is for missing his fairytale forcasts in Q1 2015
Musk? Think bigger. This is a much better exuse than Polar Vortices, for the coming lack of GDP expansion.
Will one of these Longshoredorks please explain their pricing power at this particular juncture?
.... What is this "American exporters" that he mentions ?
GMO food, mostly. Some scrap metals, and some oil refined products. The perfect profile of a 3rd world exporter. Watch for yourself and weep...
http://www.portoflosangeles.org/pdf/Los-Angeles-Trade-Numbers-2013.pdf
lazy mutherfuckers
Scrap metal and raw used paper and cardboard.
GMO, cancer and pr0n are the chief exports...and only one needs to be shipped.
is this yet another thread where the world comes to an end because some dock workers are on strike?
what a load of crap... anyone who knows anything about the USA knows this is a very small blip on the logistical radar... the only people who're going to feel this are idiots dumb enough to keep pushing goods straight into a situation known well ahead of time...
"Bastards, get to work and unload that shit. Jimmy Hoffa is in one of those containers, DAMN IT!!"
where are the pictures
of all the oil tankers ,loaded on the cheap [ sub 45 $ oil ]
being used as floating storage, like 2009
possible reason baltic dry is so low
so the players get cheaper floating storage rates ...
comment deleted
America is a world leader of the exportation of tyranny & weapons.
Not sure about "stunning" photos...try taking a peak at Singapore or HK on a normal day...10 times the boat traffic
I live in Qingdao, the world's 6th largest port. This looks like a normal day.
How come no one is trying to bomb these? Where's that ISIS air force? Still at JV practice?
How many union guys does it take to unload a ship??? NONE, not til we get a raise!!!
How many Russian oligarch ass kissers does it take to troll a website?
I hate when I do that!
How many Russian oligarch ass kissers does it take to troll a website?
Don't get so excited. I know that it may take a little practice, but it just takes one click.
Hey I didn't know Lincoln's actual birthday was a holiday. Where's my OT? My manager is going to hear about this...as soon as I get these fries out.
Sons, husbands, fathers of brave Ukranian nation - all respect to them :)
http://youtu.be/GCKcg5_2Wb8
Let me put this kindly.
Fuck you Ukie Nazi sympathaizer.
Say hi to Vicki next time you go to pick up you State Dept check.
Run out of potatoes again ? Next time don't use them for moonshine...
Yea,,, really brave attacking and killing people because they have the utter gall to want self determination and nothing to do with Nazination.
Really brave to force your citizens to kill others for the nazis in control (US and UKE) by conscription and threats.
truth is most are doing all possible to avoid dying to enrich Kiev mafiya
whose interest is that war continues profit for pocket funds and material while leave soldiers bare, hungry and dying
https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_3631545463&feature=iv&src_vid=tJsbNecM8DU&v=k9xczCg9SHU
LifeNEWS as RT, Sputnik, Rossija24, etc. are putin regime propaganda lies channels..
http://youtu.be/fTWvrKwgmRg
http://youtu.be/iOdZLc-ulHs
and they are sick in head:
http://youtu.be/SnvCOPC0stA
Enjoy your short stay here. Shill baby.
viedoklis_lv a.k.a. freedom123 is a Kiev Yatzi regime drivel lies and propaganda channel.
And he is a commie obsessed with restoring bolshevik rule to Russia and the baltics.
All the news outlets are in competition for "THe Biggest Liar" show.
Truth and justice is so 1800's? Wait a fucking minute. Now exactly when was it?
Keep your nose in that phone and move along, already.
I believe the libertarian ZH crowd has it wrong. Those ships are waiting to port due to EXCESSIVE demand created by our free and fearless Federal Reserve. Without Dr. Bernanke and Mr. Yellen saving the global economy from outright collapse, we would actually be seeing ships lined up with cheap Chinese goods and no where to offload them. Luckily, that does not appear to be the case.
Signed, MDB
.. so pop another bottle of Baltic Dry.
sorrie, no can do
it's all on ships
waiting to be unloaded...
Kind of staggering the amount of shit that comes from China
American corporatism at it's finast.......The phase will be complete when Americans are exported to China to work in the rice paddies......
America Fuck Yea!
Its not like Americans are being forced to cut their own throats buying foreign goods. They seem to be willing to do it voluntarily.
Its too easy to point fingers as though its someone elses fault. Look in the mirror for the culprit.
My brother-in-law is a master plumber. He recently had to do a job twice because the Chinese fittings could not pass a pressure test. He had quite a time trying to find American made gas fittings, but when he did, the plumbing finally passed.
Gas fittings. At a school building. Scary.
We can dramatically change things in this country for the better simply by buying 'US made.' Such a surge of monetary oxygen into the arteries of our withered manufacturing sector would bring an astounding and lasting surge to our economy.
we're not out of food, you're just too hungry.
"We starved some folks."
There, I couldn't resist.
bullish
Yeah, pretty much.
With any luck this will spread into a general strike actually.
Once this is resolved it will tack 50 points on to the S&P.
And if it goes on long enough, say hello to more Fed intervention. Either way, this has to be bullish.
Make em earn minimum wage like the rest of us. It's only fair!
Edit: Okay /s
And....it's gone!
my God that was a funny video, never laughed that hard in my life, Lord forgive me... the belligerant cressendo at the end was freakin' over the top... as for the port workers, ... whelp it;s gonna be hard to eat chicken by the pound in such a "cosmopolitan" environ.. it sucks competing for the scraps we're thrown, but maybe their union bosses can tune up a few minions and get them some relief... for the record, I live on approximately 1/20 of that per year, so it's hard to be sympathetic... that's "their state", i.e. the elites -- they've wrapped up much of the west coast in general.. though supposedly their getting bombed with radiation?
Labor can try to take from controlling capitalists, but they won't win this time. Bad timing.
WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!!!!!!!
Yes, yes we are all going to die. It is inevitable.
Life is indeed, 100% terminal.
You'll never get out of this life alive...
If you want to be free, you gotta die.
Get to work fuckers! I want my cheap Chinese trinkets you bastards!
Wow, so daddy's little darling won't get a new iPhone? Oh dear, the riots will surely happen now!
Miffed;-)
iPhones are shipped via air cargo.
So daddy's big darling will not be getting her new Honda.
Hello divorce...Goodbye Japan.
Bullish for alien workers.
Meanwhile, the FCC moves to control the internet... presumably to squelch stories like these from sources like Zero Hedge...
Considering how many people out there are struggling to get by on $10 to $12k a year, these dockworkers just might be finding most people less than sympathetic to their demands, once they find out how much dockworkers are already making.
They might be envious and hopeful at the same time and maybe even wish they could join a strong union.
Leave the dockworks alone. Hang the company managers who salaries and benefits are many times greater. It's just a matter of greed.
Pretty soon we are going to run out of Toilet paper...call Maduro...
Congress needs to pass the Affordable Stevedore Act - worked for healthcare and plumbing.......
The Affordable Plumbing Act (Redistribute the Wealth from the Productive to non-productive)
Only weeks after leaving office on January 20, 2017, former president Barack Hussein Obama discovers a leak under his sink, so he calls Joe the Plumber to come out and fix it. Joe drives to Obama's new house, which is located in a very exclusive, gated community near Chicago where all the residents have a net income of more than $250,000 per year.
Joe arrives and takes his tools into the house. Joe is led to the guest bathroom that contains the leaky pipe under the sink. Joe assesses the problem and tells Obama that it's an easy repair that will take less than 10 minutes. Obama asks Joe how much it will cost. Joe checks his rate chart and says, "$9,500."
"What?! $9,500?" Obama asks, stunned, "But you said it's an easy repair Michelle will whip me if I pay a plumber that much!"
Joe says, "Yes, but what I do is charge those who make $250,000 per year a much higher amount so I can fix the plumbing of poorer people for free," explains Joe. "This has always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied the Democrat Congress, who passed this philosophy into law. Now all plumbers must do business this way. It's known as 'Affordable Plumbing Act of 2014 ' I'm surprised you haven't heard of it."
In spite of that, Obama tells Joe there's no way he's paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Joe leaves. Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book calling for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses in the area have gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Joe's price, Obama does nothing and the leak goes unrepaired for several more days. A week later the leak is so bad that Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink. Michelle is not happy as she has Oprah and guests arriving the next morning. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour and there's a risk that the room will flood, so Obama calls Joe and pleads with him to return.
Joe goes back to Obama's house, looks at the leaky pipe, checks his new rate chart and says, "Let's see, this will now cost you $21,000."
Obama quickly fires back, "What! A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!"
Joe explains, "Well, because of the 'Affordable Plumbing Act ,' a lot of wealthier people are learning how to maintain and take care of their own plumbing, so there are fewer payers into the plumbing exchanges. As a result, the price I have to charge wealthy people like you keeps rising. Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work by those who get it for free has skyrocketed! There's a long waiting list of those who need repairs but the amount we get doesn't cover our costs. This unfortunately has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, they're not being replaced, and nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they can't make any money at it. I'm hurting, too, all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won't pay their fair share."
Well done, Sir!
In reality, most of us (smarter) po peeps already know how to do plumbing, electrical, mechanical and a whole lotta other shit. As a hobby, some rich folk do it too cause makin money is borin and they have a lot of idiotic middle class folk chasing their tails trying to become one of them. Them rich folk decided to have them lobbyists make so many new laws and rules that they could buy up all those little guys (or put em outta bizness) and own the trades fer next ta nuthin. That goddamn carrot just won't go away sorta like them dawgs that chase rabbits goin round a track.
I feel bad fer joe, he spent so much money fer technical school n the unions and got fucked by both. Hope that $1 donation they ask fer every year made a difference and that the dues were worth it.
on the other hand..you can bet that port in Mexico is going to be built now...non union for sure...
You can either pay the dock workers in California their 'fee' or your can pay the Mexicans much less but have 25% of the cargo stolen and peddled in Mexico City..
may they go the way of General Motors, oh, wait....!
They support the communist. Fire then.
Too late. They've already stage a global coup, including the Former Untied States of Amerika.
They go on strike, fire them all like the PATCO workers in the 80's.
There is a significant difference between dockworkers and government workers. Owners mind the store. No one minds the government.
strong dollar, reduced demand, homeland security cut backs,
sanctions and terror alerts due to multiple
fronts of military intervention; all of it
predicated on unsustainable debt. what could
possibly go wrong?
All according to plan staks up PM down make sense rite?
btfd, overtime, and have the infinite patience
of an ,,, owl? keep your hands strong and
active, not idle.
"Catastrophic Shutdown of America's Usless Chinese Crap Supply Chain"
or
"We're Going To Need A Smaller Boat"
To a blue collar grunt from the rust belt, these strikers are absolutely insane.
$147,000.
wow and here I thought the useless GS-13 panty wastes making $106,000 (who are topped out) had it made...
uh oh!
What happened to that huge shipping port in Mexico? Those guys in Long beach will be without a job once an installation in Mexico occurs.
Ron Reagan could fix this .................fast
Someone tell the clueless negro to invoke Taft-Hartley.
Oh, wait, that would be a positive thing and help America out.
Amazon drones to the rescue. Booyahhhhhh!
One has to admit that these guys deserve a pay rise... Compared to bankers this is peanuts and they´re working much harder in my opinion!
Fuck the Unions!
Fuck BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Porsche?
Fuck Honda, Toyota, and Nissan. If the cars do not arrive then they cannot sell them.
Crush the Japanese Economy. Go dockworkers. Bring the whole God Damned financial system down. When Japan falls we will soon follow.
Fuck Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
Without parts the USA Defense Industry grinds to a halt and we cannot build weapons anymore.
Crush warmongering.
Go dockworkers.
Massachusetts is about to get shut down again...
http://www.wcvb.com/weather/forecasters-track-potential-weekend-blizzard-in-massachusetts/31219578
Next weeks forecast...another 2 day snow event mid week.
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As far a California goes, no one has any money left to buy shit with, what is all that stuff for? The Free Shit Army or just empty containers?
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/02/10/how-much-shutting-down-for-s...
Note: This does include coastal storm damage or building/structural damage.
Maybe a carbon Tax can pay for this awful climate change.
If they would haven't given their carbonazi cronies billions in stimulus funds (that went BK), and as punishment, gave those bastards shovels to move all that fucking global warming (and have a heart attack doing it), as well as all the banks that profited on the scam, we would be a lot better off... but all we get is maybe 500 guys from the Nat Guard shoveling (the rest are off fighting climate change elsewhere for the sake of the banks), while those poor bastards need to shovel their roofs too.
The good Gov. Of Ma (a republican) will see to it that those who made off with the loot such as Beacon Power, Evergreen and about 10 more companies will pay dearly. Mark my fucking words.
Al Gore: "Snow is a thing of the past"... Guess what, Hell just froze over.
http://dailybail.com/home/green-corruption-the-five-circles-of-carbon-ta...
There's your "Bigger Boat".
Go get it.
This class envy shit doesn't work with me. It's "class warfare" to comment on how the 1% enrich themselves. It's "just business" when the middle class is demolished to siphon their wealth upward. 7-figure and 8-figure pay packages are the bare minimum to "incentivize" executives because they couldn't be arsed to roll out of bed for even 10 times the median wage. But it's Socialism, Thuggery and worse when people outside the 1% find they have leverage and use it? Horseshit. Let the Walton family offload the ships themselves. They might muss their designer duds in the process, but if it's really such grunt labor that anyone could do, let them do it. Dockworkers wouldn't be able to use their union to lever such wages if there weren't supply and demand arguments for it. And while I certainly know longshoremens unions were a byword for corruption before "On The Waterfront" was made, if corporations can organize and use their leverage, labor has to be able to do it too. If corporations don't like it, they can work out alternatives as they have almost everywhere else in our economy. Why do they deserve special treatment and exemption from the rules all the rest of us have to play by? They don't want the same status as citizens; they want superior status, and for the most part, they have it already.
Clearly not enough is being done to suppress this Prole uprising!!
the retail industry leaders association says a shutdown would be catastrophic and hundreds of thousands of jobs would be at risk?
No hyperbole there. nope. I for one am shocked they would say that. Shocked.
this is meaningless.
I'm sure it doesn't effect government jobs. MIght even need to hire more government workers to sort things out.
I noticed them the other day looking from Newport area of OC. Looks like go-go days when cargo ships were stretched to the horizon.
And not a word about this from the MSM. Fuck it, every presstitute who works for any "news" agency is suspended for 6 months. I'm tired of lies and grab-ass celebrity shit while the real news is suppressed.
connection reset dupe
there's news about it, it's just that everyone knows it doesn't matter...
I often wonder if people from other countries truly understand just how vast the USA's logistical framework is... shutting down Long Beach will have an impact but cryin' out loud we're not talking TEOTWAWKI type stuff here... it just means Houston, Beaumont, or Newark will see an uptick as things get re-routed... truly, nothing to see here worth all the sackcloth and ashes from the hype crowd...
Keep thinking of those people in the middle east blowing a hole in the warship Cole. With all those ships they would have a party.
I'm all stocked up on garbage from China. No problem. I'm OK.
No shit. If I run out of new Chinese made crap all I have to do is go out to the barn and drag out some of the old broken Chinese crap I have not seen in years. It will be like Christmas. Less fiat spent on crap, more fiat available for AU/AG.
I'm as ready for the SHTF scenario as I am ever going to be. Bring it on. A lack of Chinese imports won't put much of a ding in my lifestyle and if it goes on long enough maybe we will have to resort to actually making stuff in the USSA again.
Selfish bastard.
"the retail industry leaders association says a shutdown would be catastrophic "
Means stocks would go higher.
The upside; this may break my wife's Walmart habit. I can always wish anyway.
The average dock worker makes $147,000 + benefits. What the fuck. Do they all have PHDs. Does their training last 3 or 4 years to qualify to load a ship. Are they a very unique human being where only a few on this planet are capable to do this type of work. I guess they all speak 3 or 4 languages fluently to communicate with all the various nations that port on the West Coast. And their people skills must be very unique. Yup, they have to be a special person to do this highly complex, difficult, and taxing job. That has to be it.
You have got to be kidding. And all our costs go up because of... unions.
Yes, let's return to the days of slave and child labor; you'l want to ba an overseer, of course.
Absolutely not X-. Fair wages and benefits of course. But lets be fair. Do I have to pay someone over $140,000.00 to load and offload ships. You think that is right? And now they are striking. They make more than school teachers, nurses and more than many airline pilots. There are doctors making less than long shoremen.
All I am saying is lets make it real. Yes, it is a skill and an important one. Professionals are making less. What would they be taking home in wages without a union? Your average worker now makes less than $50,000.00 So, if they made 60 or 70,000 is that not a fair wage? This is where unions, and I belonged to one while I was working, really do not do the most people good.
Totally absurd.
The straw man just said ouch
No. all your costs go up because of executive salaries and golden parachute retirement plans.
Because ObamaCare?
OBAMACARE TAX THREATENS TO CLOSE WEST COAST PORTSThe slow-roll implementation of Obamacare threatens to close U.S. commercial ports on the West Coast. The 29 ports, which handle 70 percent of maritime imports from Asia, were closed over the weekend after months of contentious contract negotiations. The ports reopened Monday, but 20,000 longshoremen are still threatening to strike over a new Obamacare tax.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/10/obamacare-tax-threate...
Maybe the whole country, including non-union, should strike for that reason.
17% of Chinas exports stuck in the sea, is that burrish for the SSE?
It's only bullish if they sink, with their cargo on-board.
Take a long hard look.
All those goods made somewhere else are jobs you and your children and your children's children will never have. -& a very small number of people are becoming even more obscenely wealthy importing everything to the United States and selling all these slave-labor/third-world-labor cost of production goods to you at first world prices and profit margins.
I'll ask again:
IF the labor and environmental laws governing the production of goods in the Untied States are just and reasoned then how can it be just and reasoned to allow importation of goods made where these laws do not apply?
IF the costs associated with complying with these laws are necessary to maintain a healthy domestic jobs market and a clean environment then what excuse can there be for allowing the imortation of goods the adversely affect the domestic jobs markets and the environment?
The Enviornmentalists have really helped destroy jobs in the US and the Global environment.
In order to reduce CO2 emissions, we have outsourced our manufacturing to China, which has almost NO CO2 emission standards. So the net effect is a major NEGATIVE to the environment.
Then on top of the manufacturing. ALL of the raw materials need to be brought to these plants in China (CO2), created (CO2), then again shipped (CO2) out 1/2 way around the world...unloaded...put on diesel trucks (CO2) and then driven to your local chain store.
What excuses do the so-called environmentalists have for condoning the importation of goods from foreign lands that do not conform to the environmental laws governing domestic manufacturing?
Is the environment in their yard paramount and not that of their neighbors? Where does the precious and valuable part of the environment end and the useless and disposable part of the environment begin?
Would they dump toxic waste on the side of the road or into the river if no one was willing to enforce the laws and regulations that they purportedly condone against them when they did it?
What is the difference is there to these frauds between dumping toxic shit into the air or water in China vs the air and water in Michigan?
What excuses do the labor unions -such as the dock workers- have for condoning the importation of goods from foreign lands that do not conform to the labor and worker safety laws governing domestic labor?
Are these merely selfish bastards concerned only with fattening their own checks even if it means putting large numbers of their fellow citizens out of work? Where is the 'solidarity' with unions and non-union workers all over the nation that have not seen anything like the rates of compensation or the raises they have been enjoying over the last 30 years??
What excuses do the politicians and regulatory bureaucrats have for condoning the importation of goods manufatured in foreign lands that do not conform to the environmental and labor laws governing the United States?
Are these people merely avaricious flunkies making rules to keep themeselves in perpetual pork-barrel funding even though it hollows out the domestic base of production? Do they care less about their neighbors safety and health then about their own fiefdoms??
Where are the tariffs and taxes and fines for purposefully avoiding these purportedly just and reasoned laws and regulations?
IMHO: none of these organizations, or their members, or their political representatives, or their supporters, actually represent the ideals and policies that they claim to support.
These are ALL fronts for gloablist corporatist oppression of the domestic labor and consumer base using propaganda tactics and cost shifting and government transfer payments/welfare programs to mask their true policies of neo-feudalist oppression and theft.
The Enviornmentalists have really helped destroy jobs in the US and the Global environment.
In order to reduce CO2 emissions, we have outsourced our manufacturing to China, which has almost NO CO2 emission standards. So the net effect is a major NEGATIVE to the environment.
Then on top of the manufacturing. ALL of the raw materials need to be brought to these plants in China (CO2), created (CO2), then again shipped (CO2) out 1/2 way around the world...unloaded...put on diesel trucks (CO2) and then driven to your local chain store.