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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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learn to spell
Take your meds.(Then use the spel cheker)
Clearly not burdened with a great deal of book learnin'.
Yes that's about the picture I had of a dockworker. Thanks for confirming.
Ummm, we are pissed at ALL of them mate! All of them.
Hey inthemix... are you fucking high, stupid or both? These motherfuckers are overfuckingpaid you jackwagon! I would GLADLY take that job at 125k.... and with benefits? Dont come here spreadin your bullshit... some got on my leg..
Are you fucking touched son?
Does mr Blankfiend and co-horts desreve multiples of these folks wages for fucking indebting the western world in un-payable debt?
Are you fucking serious you idiot? Even if these blokes made $20 million a year, they provide more value than the fucking parasites who print the fucking wage from thin air you imbiclic cunt?? And add the unpayable interest that fucking clowns like you are going to pay back with your blood sweat and tears.
Fuck off son and talk sense.
Cunt
:-)
No, the don't. They are dockworkers. Hence, they can easily be replaced.
In fact 95% of their work has been offloaded since the institution of the heavy cranes and the intermodal containers.
If Google and all these other companies were smart, they'd forget about the self driving car, and complete the self steering container ship, the fully-automated loader and unloader, and the self-driving delivery truck.
In fact, just build more railway nationwide to carry the containers, rather than hi-speed rails that won't be used in CA.
I believe the Russians and Chinese had been seriously studying the feasibility of constructing a rail bridge across the Bering Straight (or rail tunnel? I can't remember exactly as I came across the info a couple of years ago). If something like that ever came to pass it would radically change issues like the dock workers strike in the future. Too bad that in light of the USA's antagonistic stance towards both of those countries that the possibility of this happening in the next decade is pretty slim.
That was great!
People only earn $125K from companies that can afford to pay.
Your lack of business sense indcates you are stuck in the min wage lane.
Can you inagine any of the Walton tribe being forced to exist on these annual wages, and have to spend all day working besides? The horror of it all.
This reminds me of the 1889 London Dock Strike, which resulted in the birth of strong labour unions and the socialist worker's political parties.
I doubt the West Coast Dock Strike has the same reasons or will have the same effect, as these unions are already strong - at $200k gross a year per docker, that's a very good salary for working a crane on a split shift!
What are they really striking for?
Interesting thought. What if "union wage dispute" was the cover story for something else? What if the Chinese gov could hold products just outside of the port as a form of "sanction" or threat? Would they?
I used to think that kind of union muscle was an abuse of power, but since we all now live in feudal times, it becomes survival of the fittest. May be were are just supposed to be envious, and try to do the same thing ourselves.
Unfortunately my line of business is one where no-one understands what you do, and can't figure out the value of your efforts. Anyway, I'm doubling the size of my emoluments .................. and damn the torpedoes.
You must be in great industry. When nobody understands what you do and the marketplace has a hard time figuring out the value of your services, it generally means you are in a niche business, or your a teacher.
I'd not only double your emoluments, but make sure to add a stipend, a premium, an honorarium and then, possibly, a 15% service fee.
When nobody understands what you do and the marketplace has a hard time figuring out the value of your services, it generally means you are a POLITICIAN.
Too bad you were a weak student.
The unions drove themselves out of business. Non-union folk must bail them out.
That's why I advocate EBT. Lay around, get high and pork all day.
yep and nasdaq closed at its highest since May 2000. Gimme some correction, baby. Buying opportunities buying opportunities. gimme some correction!
plastics. ah, the graduate was a great movie
$150K / yr???
Fook Mei
Where the fuck do I sign up??? Tell those fucks to go jump off the fucking pier and get outta the fucking way 'cause I'm on my way to take their fucking job, man!
fuck the unions. i'd rather close my company than kow-tow to these parasitic union fucks.
unions served a purpose... back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. now they do nothing but increase costs for everyone.
sorry for the double post...
Some things need repeating.
And whats your point? Are you saying that if you could pay your employees less you would lower the price of your end product? LMFAO You know thats a fucking lie. You would charge exactly what the market would bear. But those union boys aint supposed to do that now are they? I say fuck your bullshiit
Every citizen is forced to pay a higher price for product and/or tax because of government imposed law which requires union members to be paid MOAR.
I say, fuck your bullshit.
No such a law exist.
Union dues are stupid.
Sure go fight for higher wages... no problem.
But what pisses me off is, 99% of unions are pretty much labor brothles, the people that run the unions pimp out their labor at high prices enforced by law, and then the guy actually doing the work gets his paycheck cut in half by union dues and ontop of that all the taxes... most roofing unions in NYC when you combine taxes and dues the guy working only see around.... 38~45% of his check (in his hands).
So I don't get why people really work for unions, when you could just... not work in a union and get paid more or less 30% more than if you were in the union.
Then when you get to the age of retirment (because everyone is going to make it to that age...right?) you go to collect your pension only to find your union heads living in McMansions driving mazeratis while your broke and your pension system self-destructed.
I would of probably spent a year or two working in unions if there were no union dues etc... just for the experience etc... but meh... your better off just winging it if you are skilled.
Unions are more for people who have enough skill to b.s. a job, but not enough skill to really . . . go it on their own... its a communist work camp of sorts.
'So I don't get why people really work for unions...'
The democrat imposed laws and the democrat union thugs ensure no one works without a card.
Dre4dwolf - You get a thumbs up for the commentary, with exception of your first statement.
Union dues are not stupid, as you stated. They are brilliant. It's the suckers paying them that are stupid.
Recently, we had the head of a school bus drivers union thrown in the slammer for a while. He was taking a shit-load of money to give out the best routes and overtime. This guy owned 40 commercial retail/office buildings, each worth an average of about $1 million. His office was like you died and woke up on Don Corleone's living room. The guy was making over a million a year, almost all in cash. He was not stupid - until he got caught. But, he's probably done his time and taken the swift boat back to his olive and grape farm in Sicily. (I know it sounds ethnically insensitive, but he is Italian.)
By the way, anyone know why the call Italians WOPs? I thought it was because it was short for "WithOut Papers", which is often how they arrived when they came over from Italy to the U.S. However, someone told me recently I was wrong and that it's actually the sound that shit makes when it hits a wall. Does anyone know the correct answer?
bullshit. wife's union pays them 15 dollars more an hour with a planned pension and a 401k with 100% matching.
if you get a paycheck(i don't give a shit if you wear a suit) and aren't organized you are stupid because management is organized against you......speaking as former management. i don't want to pay you anything and if you let me i will pay you nothing(interns).
nook, that is why our country is going broke, unions serve the purpose of overpaying for services, and pricing our goods out of the market. If you look at their history, they once had a purpose, with osha and the rest, not so much. Lemme ask you how much the union dues are?
i didn't downvote you.
dues are 60 bucks/mo. the union she belongs to is useless for the most part. the power comes from the millions a strike costs. in other words, if the profitable company(that can't move or outsource) doesn't want to shre profits then the union makes them pay in other ways.
i could give you a history on the fall of the union in the auto industry but it is long and complicaterd so i will summarize. the uaw was busted in two ways. the first reason is fundamental economics. productivity gains in auto manufacturing dramatically reduced the need for physical labor. the other reason was political. with reagan union busting came right to work and other anti union organizing legislation coupled with tax incentives for the automakers to send jobs first to mexico and later to china. the legislation was sold with an all out media union bashing campaign with the theme that unions destroyed the manufacturing base of the usa.totally untrue. mind you, in 1984 american auto manufacturers had a 1500 dollar/car advantage over toyota and honda with a combined 85% of the auto market and MANAGEMENT managed to give all of that up in the next 15 years even with outsourcing and union busting.
labor hasn't been paid a fair wage since.
ok, that is reasonable enough. but these cats are getting paid 50/hr, cadillac ins and 80k pensions, and the rest of us not even half that, for the most part. nafta, gatt and the rest have killed us for sure, so i cant blame it all on the unions.
seems to me though that the labor costs attributed no? i see you say differently
So you just downvote me with no answer, thought so!
The Teamsters owe me $2500.00
fuck the unions. i'd rather close my company than kow-tow to these parasitic union fucks.
unions served a purpose... back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. now they do nothing but increase costs for everyone.
Eventually the Chinese will replace your company too with their $.01 imports.
unions served a purpose... back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. now they do nothing but increase costs for everyone.
Bullshit! The death of the unions in the USA can be directly attributed to the death of the middle class in the US. Germany has a very high rate of unionization and have made that system work excellently for several decades. In their case there has been an explicit acknowledgement that corporate profit cannot be concentrated in one side of the enterprise. The muti-national conglomerate's power was most brazenly evident when they rammed through the "right to work" law in Michigan - taking starting hourly wages in some manufacturing concerns from $25/hour or higher to $15/hour, if that. All the while the CEO's and other Executives rake in salaries in the 7 figure ranges. Makes me want to projectile vomit . . .
A styrofoam pad at the hangar and three bowls of gruel a day. Anything beyind that just "increases costs".
Remember to give them a nickel a day too, otherwise it would be "slavery".
Communists doing what they do - F' them
That's Catalina Island and the little dip in the middle to the right is Avalon Bay. Never forget the day I went for a ride on bicycles with the lady that had false teeth. They were in her purse in the bicycle basket when the bike fell over. The purse rolled a little toward the ocean and opened. The teeth fell out and continued down the slope. A wave came in and out went the teeth. I jumped in after them and almost broke my thumb scrambling down the hill. I caught hold of the teeth came back and suggested that she keep them in her face instead of in her purse.
That is such a fucked up story, I couldn't help but give you a 'thumbs up.'
Where you riding with your gradmother?
Is it an allegory I'm missing?
You forgot to mention the "gummy" she gave you while you held the teeth hostage . . . . .
Hopefully they never came loose while you were applying glaze to her tonsils.
Look on the Bright Side -
Pretty soon, you'll be able to walk to China...
Nah that just means the Chinks can walk here.
Remember, to the Chinese, WE'RE the Chinks...
Thank you teamsters for fixing the US balance of trade problems.
They are doing what Obama can't.
Send all this junk back to China!
If Mexico was smart, they would open a giant West Coast port and take all this buisness to South of the Border.
China is actively working on trade deals now with Mexico, Central, & South America to replace the diminishing US trade.
Wait until the DC chicken hawks see this deal,, AYE CARUMBA!
China is actively working on trade deals now with Mexico, Central, & South America to replace the diminishing US trade.
Wait until the DC chicken hawks see this deal,, AYE CARUMBA!
Especially when the trade will be settled in RMB's (or even more evil - GOLD) . . . . .
Ay Caramba!
(Never saw a single latin american say that, only Bart Simpson).
You need an IPO.
Build it an automated shipping port nestled in the Gulf of California.
What’s stopping Carlos Slim and Bill Gates?
They'd never think of that. Too busy exporting their poverty to the US nstead of building that corrupt hell hole into something useful
I do not wish to pop any bubbles but it looks like a very quiet day off the coast of Singapore? What is the drama?
Holy Crap---these guys are in the 1% according to our fearless leader's definition. Vegas should be taking odds on them being forced back to work--maybe 1000000 to 1 he won't since they are UNION. The average reader seems to miss the point and severity (by viewing so many F the Chinese product comments). This CA problem has screwed up everything on all coasts and all rail logistics and there are going to be some big losers (loss of business insurance companies, small businesses with contracts to supply, food products etc) The real story should be how the administration is showing NO leadership getting this resolved. Could this be intentional to add to the chaos?
this is how detached american labor is from reality both in terms of the benefits of unions and their personal present pay.
someone did a chart a while back(it may have been during the previous strike several years ago) that showed that if labor wage rates had risen at a rate commensurate with economic growth of the aggregate economy the dockworkers are paid a fair wage. most labor is way too stupid to understand the benefits of collective bargaining rights. the resulting pay difference between union and nonunion workers is incentive enough to put up with union dues that pay for hookers and blow. american labor believes in right to work laws. you can't fix stupid.
seems these union guys didn't stop chinese stuff from flowing and none of the private shipping companies paying the wages are going bankrupt. in a week they wiil have lost the entire differnce at the negotiating table.
stop being reasonable.
you will be considered a socialist and hated by the ZH community.
/sarc
Fuck me. What does an average dockworker do? And can I have that job!
But, but.... My new iPhone!!!!
my new Android! wah!!!!!!!
Gee, I thought the strike would be over by the time I returned here.
From a DIFFERENT perspective,
Imagine if those ships Didn't HAVE to come?
Imagine if those goods were made in YOUR home town.
Imagine if the unemployed(your kid, or neighbor) had a real possiblity of a Local Job Making the stuff in those containers?
Just a different way of looking at the picture.
I will return us now back to the "Fuck the Unions" false debate instead of questioning why we let Walmart/Home Depot replace all the local manufacturers to begin with.
Disclosure - I have owned 2 companies that I started myself, and never drew unemployment, nor ever a member of a union
Agree 100%. The fact of the matter is, U.S. salaries--courtesy of the U.S. government's century-long POLICY of devaluing the U.S. dollar and making the public pay for it via the backdoor tax of chronic inflation--have been in an 80-year bubble. And that bubble has now POPPED, because plenty of people elsewhere in the world are willing to do the same work for a fifth of the money that U.S. workers have been conditioned--like rats--to expect in their paycheck. The party is OVER, America...
Confucius say;
No judge man - until spend 6 month in his container ship in Port of Errr Ray
Having worked on the docks, i can tell you these longshoremen are nothing but overpaid thugs who operate mafioso style. They steal as much as they "earn" and if the importers and truckers don't "grease the palm" the consequences could be painful. In that sense, they are much like the gubberment: our way or a push, a nailgun, or a stay at our penile system where you better not pick up the soap.
I am in the ILWU but a different local. One thing to remember is the wages mentioned are in southern Califoria dollars. A house you would not like here could be a half a million dollars. A two bedroom condo in my building goes for over 200,000 dollars where it would one fourth of that in many parts of the country. Also remember the PMA (the employer's union) is almost all made up of rich foreign shipping companies. And from my understanding the reason for not having a contract is not about wages.
The reason ILWU members make what they do is because they have kept getting raises when others havn't.
>The reason ILWU members make what they do is
>because they have kept getting raises when
>others haven't.
Exactamundo. Dockwork has always paid very well, although in the old days you had to work for it by stealing, so once they containerized everything they boosted wages to compensate. That was maybe thirty years ago now, and ILWU wages have kept increasing. Nothing else has, everyone else's wages have been falling for thirty years (except for government workers, even if they get theirs mostly in overtime and retirement). STEM wages have fallen 50% or more in real dollars in just twenty years.
I don't particularly begrudge the ILWU wages, except in comparison.
"one can't blame dockworkers for doing what Greece is actively doing", maximizing leverage. Yes, the same: they are blackmailing the respective economies of the US and EU. I'd call that terrorism.
LOL...so they're terrorizing the terrorists?
The terms Terrorist and Nazi do not pack the punch they used to.
I flew over this scene off SNA around 1:00 PM PST today. Counted 20 (twenty) ships. Dude sitting next to me confirmed that count... This sh$t is no joke.
"nothing short of 3.5% of marginal US GDP is at steak"
mmm steak om nom
Rush hour is going to be a total, absolute bitch when this logjam breaks loose.
funny that none of the anti-union trolls are bitching about what football players, "entertainers", bankers, and corporate fat cats earn
A lawyer friend of mine once told me that he had no qualms about charging a client $200,000 for reviewing a multimillion dollar contract that took the same amount of work and skill that he regularly charged around $10,000 for when contract was for a more moderate amount
Not to minimize the gravity of the situation but the pictures aren't that crazy and the reporter must be the double-rainbow guy's cousin... the port of Singapore looks busier than that every single day (and night)...
Double rainbow guys cousin, I leled.
EBT/Disability is really the way.
Free food allowance.
Free housing allowance.
Free medical.
Free utilities.
Free ‘earned income’ credit refunds every April.
No alarm clocks.
No traffic.
No schedules.
No stress.
No stinky/talkative coworkers.
Considering the above, if EBT/Disability can mange obtaining 25K a year from hidden income they are set.
Im still struggling to see why all income shouldn't be "hidden", I dont get how someone else even has a right to know what I make.
I totally agree with you!
Start using Bitcoin. Then you won't "really" have an income and no one can really know how much wealth you have.
I realize that $147,000 per year for a blue collar job seems like a lot of dough but it should be put in context against the cost of living in the areas where the west coast ports are located. A shit box 3 bedroom home for a family of four in the LA/Longbeach area can be as high as $750,000 (or more) - unless you want to live in the hood with the Bloods and Crips. The same goes for most, if not all, of the municipalities where the ports are located. If the dock workers plan on staying in the areas of the ports after retirement then an $80,000 pension would not be out of line to keep a half-way decent lifestyle because of the cost of living issue.
And it's because of the "right to work" laws in many states over the past couple of decades that the total unionized membership in this country has hit an all time low - all the while increasing corporation's profits. I say more power to the dock workers. Grab the ring while you still can . . . .
Yup...a grand total of roughly SIX PERCENT of the U.S. workforce is unionized, but we're apparently supposed to be terrified that that six percent is somehow responsible for the decline in this country. LOL...just fucking stupid...
Unions have shoved every American job overseas that they touch. I once stayed in a union center hotel filled with bazar alternate universe world histories placed everywhere to be read.
I've been to Union Station, and our county borders Union County. I also pray for dissolution of the Union, and am nonplused about homosexual Unions. Pretty neat.
They are talking about more than half of jobs of today won't be viable in 2025. Robots will be replacing these semi-skilled quite soon.
I'm not missing any of the products.
I will report back if the situation changes....
Baltic Dry index down to 540...
The U.S. naval submariners could use these for some target practice.
I can see terrorist light bulbs going off now.
None of you see the true picture. Our dear leaders, actually puppets of the international banking cartel, ordered that US industry be sent overseas to,weaken us.
Strategically important important industries such as semiconductor foundries are now, excepting perhaps for some for memory chips,all located in places like China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea, etc.
Even though they may be designed here in the US under the strictest security conditions integrated circuits used in US high weapons must be sent to foundries in other countries. Manufacturing an IC is essentially controlled using a multitude of photographic mask overlays. It would be quite simple to subvert security are even the most secure foundry and switch a mask with another "doctored" mask during a batch manufacturing run.
The doctored chips from that batch manufacturing run would behave precisely as all other previous and future batches would behave. Except, this batch could be programmed so that if it received a specific code, a series of codes, a series of combinatorially added codes, etc., it could, say, completely disable all network security, provide a secret Backdoor so that an adversary can access all data on the network, or perform some other insidious act.
Now, combine that one example with all of the other jobs that our puppet leaders have sent to other countries via what were supposed to be mutually beneficial free trade deals. The truth is that free trade deals are theoretically equal only if each country is already at parity in measures of employment, worker prosperity, population participation in the workforce, and much more.
Our puppet leaders have screwed us, exporting many, many high-knowledge, high- paying jobs and importing just a few low-knowledge, part-time jobs. And after their terms in office they are now very, very rich!
So what, a few thousand American workers have managed to make some money off all of the jobs that the puppets in the Uni Party shipped overseas. Turning your anger towards the ILWU Longshoreman are the wrong targets. The real targets are the Democrats and Republicans puppets, but most especially towards their banking cartel puppet masters. You know who they are. They are the ones who say that they are "doing God's work".
Maybe the Department of Commerce can cobble some regulations and fix this.
Wrecking (Russian: ????????????? or vreditel'stvo, lit. "inflicting damage", "harming"), was a crime specified in the criminal code of the Soviet Union in the Stalin era. It is often translated as "sabotage"; however "wrecking" and "diversionist acts" and "counter-revolutionary sabotage" were distinct sub-articles of Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code) (58-7, 58-9, and 58-14 respectively), and the meaning of "wrecking" is closer to "undermining".
These three categories are distinguished in the following way.
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- Diversions were acts of immediate infliction of physical damage on state and cooperative property.
- Wrecking was deliberate acts aimed against normal functioning of state and cooperative organisations, e.g., giving deliberately wrong commands.
- Sabotage was non-execution or careless execution of one's duties.
As applied in practice, "wrecking" and "sabotage" could refer to any actions which could be broadly construed to negatively affect the economy in some way, including failing to meet economic targets, causing poor morale among subordinates, lack of effort, or alleged or real incompetence. Thus, it referred to economic or industrial sabotage only in the very broadest sense. Many who were charged were merely scapegoats. In many cases, even those who were not engaged in industrial activity (including scientists) were charged with wrecking. Many of the victims of the Great Purge were charged with wrecking.
Amen.
Unionized pay has always been lower than non unionized pay.
The higher salary is only a recent phenomenon.
God knows why such high salary was rewarded to union workers.
As someone suggested, it could be to allow free flow of foreign goods manufactured by US Corporations, which is killing U.S. employment.
Importers could pay more to dock workers, as they save on paying higher salaries to us manufacturing sector workers.
This also sounds, similar to police getting free pass to confiscate cash money and use it freely for any purpose.
I say it is all Government fault. it is all their manipulation of economy and normal markets.
recovery
Globalization has always been an epic fail idea, due to the massive need of fossil fueled international shipping. Wind down the ports, don't jack them up untl they find a cleaner way.
Yeah but remember when ZH was promoting the idea of miles of automobiles parked around the planet, because they had to be manufactured, but couldn't be sold? This is fear porn like that article.
If shipping is deemed essential to the US economy, then dock-working may be deemed an "essential service". They could get a big pay-raise and lose their right to strike as other "essential services" have.
I've noticed elsewhere that its only the labourers with unusually high pay who can afford to go on strike...
The reason dockworkers get paid so much is precisely because it is cheaper to pay them a quarter million dollars a year than let them run rampant through the ports stealing cargo, as was the case, because the insurance costs were higher than the salary's of the entire dock workers.
Basically it is a case of "if we give you a quarter million a year in compensation do you promise not to steal everything"
Those reported average wages are BS. Source please?
Well at least they are missed when they are not working. I will not miss the following gentlemen:
Former Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel received as much as $61 million U.S. in compensation when he left the company in 2014. Not bad for the man who blew it, and allowed 40 million credit cards to be stolen, and lead Target’s money-losing foray into Canada.
Oh man. We're all in trouble
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANuym9DlYDo
We're in trouble alright. According to this guy, things aren't looking as peachy as the MSM or politicians would like us to believe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk6QBqRWvEc
Watching Soul Train is trouble...for my senses...
Hang tough, union dudes. Screw the shit out of the sociopaths who sent everyone's jobs overseas.
Fill those empty shelves with fresh American-made products from thousands of micro-manufacturers who are springing up all over the country.
I'll take back every mean word I ever had to say about unions if you only hold out until all of China turns into Escape from New York.
"Hang tough, union dudes. Screw the shit out of the sociopaths who sent everyone's jobs overseas".
Sure, that's who will get the shaft.
All the 40 foot containers on all the 1000 ft long container ships moored off the West coast couldn't hold all the mean words you've said about everything from a stuffed teddy bear to a Poor Clare.
But hey, that's what makes you Dispicable You.
Time to crank up the domestic low wage/no wage industry/supply chain: America's prisons...
I dropped by a few groceries this week; and they're starting to feel the effects of the "Strike". They're running out of stock on certain imported food goods.
Just lovely.
Photos dont display the enormity of the ships. No reference/comparison to human size. Not good camera perspective. Dock workers only making $147000 a year.
"at steak". Mmmmmmm steaaaaak.
Nearly 200k year ? (without counting the healthcare).
It's more than STEM worker !
Replace them by robots: problem solved.
It's ( going to ) happen( ing ). 5 more years, max.
Whos stopping them? This endless threats of robots is beyond annoying. Either use them or not.
Many of you who are defending the dockworkers seem to be forgetting about their overtime. Doubles their annual take home salary ON AVERAGE. So the median is up above 200k. That's not peanuts for mediocre work that requires little to no education and provides on the job training. FUCK EM.
In a free market, which so many of you advocate, the union would be dissolved and any dissenters or violence opposition would be crushed by outside market forces seeking entry.
But I thought capitalism was all about getting the best possible price for your labor? If that's true, and if joining a union gets you that best price, what's the problem? These union workers are actually BETTER capitalists than people who don't join forces to get the best wages. Sounds like you need a refresher course in just what America's all about...
Dissolving an union would call for the state to intervene. Who would dissolve an union but the state?
<<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>>
Well, that's 'freedom' for ya.
The poor guy who was duped he fought for freedom, must be puzzled why he is not allowed to compete with the $147,000 guys.
He can try to join the union, though.
Of course, when you 'earned' $147K for a year or two, you can afford to strike for quite a while before real world (?) costs start to bite.
100 Years ago the top person at a company earned about 6 times what the lowest paid worker recieved on the everage. This was written somewhere. Now the average CEO or manager of a corporation is making hundreds of times what the lowest paid worker is making.
I've always said that the owners of a firm, the guys who actually created something and put everything on the line to achieve success deserve their money, on the other hand, most CEO's never put any risk other than their job on the line and have never created anything, but expect all the perks.
That being said, companies like Apple could easily take their surplus cash horde, cut the wages of the top heavy management structure and hundreds of thousands of low paid workers could lead a better life and their incomes would flow into the general economy.
There was a time a decade or two ago when the union was counter productive to the working stiff as often a powerful union would make it difficult for a company to realize a profit or survive. But now, maybe a union is necessary to cut income disparity. This does not apply to government unions as they recieve their incomes from taxpayers, who are already stretched to the max.
Because... that is fair - to you.
Governing by what is Fair' will rip any country apart.
'Fair' is different for everyone and will change once 'fair' is achieved.
Some will still have more than someone else and 'fair' must be achieved again.
The fact is all unions are paid more because laws have been passed to give union members 'special' privileges.
These privileges in the form of extra income and benefits are all paid for by every other citizen.
Hmmm...sounds like someone is saying that something isn't fair...
"Unions are paid"
What does that even mean in english? Who gets paid, someone in the union, all union members or "The Union" itself?
Language matters.
I count eleven ships....oh the horror!!! They are just taking pics of teh same 11 ships from different angles. Now the semi pic is cool.
If you recall this same thing happened less than 10 years ago to NO ISSUES or BLIPS to the national economy at all. Yes, back then the sky is falling news stories were all over too.
Could just be recycling pics from when gas made all the truckers say "fuck this" and park back in 07.
That's a lot of ship.
So...the "few thousand dock workers", that your economy apparently cannot function without, aren't worth paying a slice of all that fat of the land? Huh.
"Just sittin on the dock of the bay....wastin' time"
Step away from the crack pipe and relax. It's just a longshoreman strike. There have been many. I was working in supply chain for a large American retailer during the last one. No BFD, just a slowdown in the flow.
Everything is not Armageddon!
From this article: "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."
Remember that Mr. Obama is PRO union and it is alleged his Mommy was a Commie. Be quite interesting to see his reaction, indeed.
Yep, the unions have 0baMao in their back pocket and he has his head up their ass.
How hard would it be to replace these greedy fucks with robotic machines? Can't come soon enough.
Actually d edwards, The answer lies in "WWSD?" What would Soros do? Dig and we'll know the White House reactionary policy.
How is it any of your problem? Why are you so angry?
So all you non-union commenters, are basically saying: workers without a contract are somehow better off.
This whole thing is about the contract, regardless how you try to spin it.
It is important to note that all the materials being transported, are supported by contract only. All the customers being served are supported by contract only. All the manufacturers do so only thru contract.
And yet you non-union commenters, seem to think that a ship load of valuable materials, could somehow be safely moved from point A to point B without a contract, specifying such...not on your best day should that happen.
Even the non-union lumper companies and other contractors that work in this environment have a contract with the facility. And yet you non-union commenters are upset, arguing that the organized labor contract, should become less powerful, when the very management of the facility indeed agreed & signed previous labor contracts, for very valuable reasons.
The facility management knows why they need the labor & are willing to sign the agreement outlining normal work related practices.
So you non-union commenters are basically supporting the 'new normal' of continued chaos, furthering cutthroatism, disaster capitalism, mistakenly believing that your imported commodities, will somehow have a lower retail cost. Get a clue, the retail price of imported commodities, is fixed in a different contract all together, that is the contract between the retailer and the distributor that supplies it. And yet those contracts (which are often organized or co-opted) have their value also, when a distributor or a retailer goes bust, it is always because they cannot or will not fulfill their contract.
You non-union commenters support the new normal, the Walmart management style is your best example of labor without a contract. Begrudging any and all others that insist on labor with representation (a labor contract). The Walmart style has created over the years, billionaires not based on low wages, but based on the absence of labor contracts, and everyone knows that to be a fact.
wwxx
Holy fuck you are retarded.
So its ok to work without a contract, is that it?
Every product or service is sold with a contract, except for labor?
Did i get it right?
fuck these azz wholes, i hope they never get back to work, sit on the fucking dock and cry me a river and the shipping companys can kiss my ass also. i could care less if they all shut down. heres an idea go screw yourselves together, behind closed doors and let the rest of us live our lives.
I had no idea these workers made so much money, it's incredible, almost as much as the New York Police make.
If this last long enough maybe we'll have to open up all the old plants that were shut down by the greedy punks who took away from America her backbone.
Our diet is mostly cow, pig, chicken, wheat and corn, we grow all that here, what's the big deal?
Well said.
Reminds me of the prophesy of Revelation 18 when the most advanced civilization, Babylon (surely encompassing the West), is suddenly destroyed just before the Second Coming: "For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off . . . "
The entire chapter is an interesting read also.
Seems like a private dispute among two private players, some private workers and a private company conducting private negotiations. As a stauch free marketer i dont see what the big fuss is all about.
Some posters appear outraged at the salaries being requested but, since they are not funded by taxpayers, what exactly is the problem here?
If some random worker organization at some random company were to organize a strike to bargain for better conditions, whatever those may be, how does that become an issue of any interest for anyone except for the workers and company?
All posters faking concern about the large scale effect of this strike on "the economy" are communists dreaming of micromanaging all companies and decreeing all prices and salaries for the general good of "the economy". Of course they will deny that and claim to support free markets, but that there are exceptions to every rule and this is one of them. Ports are an exception.
So much in wages and compensation . . . while so many are still without a job . . . As though the Obama administration in due time will not become heavy handed in favor of 'the union'.
Holding the economy hostage to enrich themselves? What, do they think they're bankers?
Holding the economy hostage to enrich themselves? What, do they think they're bankers?
Waiting to off load.,....Cheap Shit we can do without