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West Coast Ports Shut Down For Holiday Weekend: Supply Chain Halt Threatens Havoc On Reeling Economy
A week ago, when we wrote "Catastrophic Shutdown Of America's Supply Chain Looms" As West Coast Port Worker Talks Break Down", few people noticed... as was to be expected: after all with January's retails sales just around the corner, retail sales that were supposed to surge after the vast December disappointment, nobody wanted reality to spoil the party.
Then, following the very disappointing January retail sales led to the worst back-to-back drop since Lehman (this time there was no polar vortex to blame), confirming the US economic situation is far worse than the panglossian cheerleaders, led by the Fed, would have you believe, people started to notice, especially when we presented dramatic footage showing that the Ports of LA and Long Beach harbor have become cargo ship and tanker parking lots.
Fast forward to today, when over the past 48 hours there has suddenly been a deluge of sellside reports, rushing to bring attention to this topic, such as the following:
- West Coast port disruptions likely to cloud outlooks as Q4 earnings approach - Goldman Sachs
- Port Slowdowns Intensifying, Risk Heightened Across Retail Space: Credit Suisse
- Further West Coast Port Disruption A Possibility - Deutsche Bank
- All's not quiet at the Western ports - Bank of America
And so on. Why the dramatic shift in attention to what as our readers knew 10 days ago, could be a crippling event to the US economy? Simple: as we again explained last Thursday, "in an economy that is desperate for any "one-time, non-recurring" item to explain what is now global secular stagnation and economic slowdown, an excuse such as a port strike, or a harsh winter, or a strong dollar, or plunging crude, may be precisely the scapegoat that the central-planning doctor ordered."
The only difference is that unlike the polar vortex which everyone blamed the atrocious Q1 2014 GDP on (after the unheard, seasonally-adjusted fact of snow in the winter), and which was nothing but a placeholder scapegoat, a looming collapse of US supply chains will truly have devastating consequences on the economy, quantified here two days ago.
Worse, the latest news out of the West Coast is not good for anyone hoping for a quick resolution to the congestion problem. According to Reuters, after the clogged ports briefly reopened on Friday after a daylong closure, "shippers planned to re-impose a partial shutdown through the holiday weekend barring a settlement in stalled labor talks with the dockworkers union."
The shipping companies and terminal operators planned to halt loading and unloading of container ships again starting Friday night and keep the suspension in place through Monday, the Presidents Day holiday, unless contract negotiators clinch a breakthrough deal. A deal which at least as of this moment, does not appear to be anywhere remotely close: "negotiators for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, representing 20,000 dockworkers, met at union headquarters in San Francisco on Thursday with officials from management's bargaining agent, the Pacific Maritime Association, for the first face-to-face talks in nearly a week. But the session, presided over by a federal mediator, ended with no agreement reached. It was not immediately clear whether the parties would resume direct negotiations on Friday."
So while the union demands an increase to overtime comp (when as shown previously the average dockworker makes a quarter of a million per year all-in) and has thrown in some new negotiation demands as well, including changes to the system of binding arbitration and contract disputes, in the meantime, inbound cargo vessels continued to stack up at anchor, with 27 freighters left idle on Friday morning waiting for a berth outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's two busiest cargo hubs.
The numbers are likely to grow by the end of the weekend as additional vessels arrive from Asia with no place to park at the docks.
It's not just LA: according to Lloydslist, between 10 and 12 ships a day are waiting to berth in Oakland marine terminals. "Clearing the cargo backlog at US west coast ports would take two months, once a new contract with longshore workers had been reached, the Port of Oakland says in a status update as relations between employers and labour worsen." Naturally, should the standoff continue, there is no telling how substantial the supply-chain delay will be and how many months it will take to revert the system back to normal.
So while the world awaits to see if the US economy will be slammed with the estimated 3.5%, or more, growth slowdown which could well result in a recession for the US as soon as this summer (recall that the 29 affected ports handle nearly half of all U.S. maritime trade and more than 70 percent of imports from Asia) the congestion has already rippled through the U.S. commercial supply chain, disrupting deliveries of a wide range of goods, from agricultural produce to housewares and apparel.
Here are some of the ways the already reeling US retail economy is now being pummeled as a result of the collapse of this weakest chokepoint in the US supply-chain infrastructure.
- Small business owners are unable to get goods on the shelf in time for long-planned merchandising programmes. Some are paying high premiums for work-arounds such as airfreight.
- Manufacturers are at risk of closing down assembly lines because they don't receive parts shipments.
- California's Central Valley growers can't get perishable agricultural exports through the marine terminals quickly and on to ships for delivery to overseas markets.
- Thousands of independent harbour truckers are doing less business — and receiving less pay — because they're often stranded in long lines awaiting cargo. Businesses are beginning to furlough workers because their operations are stymied by cargo delays.
- Surcharges, two week delays reported: congestion in the West Coast ports is leading to longer import lead times (up to two week delays) and increased surcharges from shippers, agents, and truckers.
- According to Credit Suisse, surcharges for transport and east coast delivery are at all-time high levels (adding 75-100% to cost of shipping in some cases.)
- K line, the sixteenth largest container shipping company in the world has added $800 congestion surcharges in ports where slowdowns are occurring.
- Truckers in Long Beach and Lost Angeles have recently added $50/hour to $100/hour surcharges for shipments originating from these ports. The average cost for Asia-U.S. shipping a twenty-foot container is approximately $750.
- Rerouting to east coast ports is time-consuming and expensive: some companies have diverted shipments to the east coast to avoid congestion on the west coast, incurring additional surcharges on top of the already more expensive and time consuming journey to Atlantic ports.
Bottom line: estimated recovery is 1 week for each day the ports are closed, and the National Retail Federation estimates a 5-day shutdown on the West coast could reduce GDP by almost $2B a day. Clearly, the adverse impact on the economy from a protracted slowdown - because it is not a full-blown lockout like in 2002 preventing Obama from using the Taft-Hartley Act to forcibly reopen the ports - will be massive, especially now that the bulk of retail vendors, many of them on line, depend on Just In-Time provisioning of mission-critical products and supplies.
One thing that is not clear is, as we asked last week, a slow-burning lockout in the West is not precisely what the Fed (Ph)Doctor ordered: after all what better excuse to a rate hike which consensus now see as taking place in 4 months, than an exogenous event which the Marriner Eccles central planners had no control or visibility over. In fact, it is a perfect Fed trump card to not only delay hiking rates but potentially lower rates... as Goldman Sachs so surprisingly hinted as a distinct possibility last week.
Finally, for those curious what a worst case scenario would look like should events in the West Coast spiral out of control, we suggest rereading our article from 2012 on the topic of "Trade-Off: Financial System Supply-Chain Cross-Contagion"
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Had the opportunity to physically see some of the back-up this week. Out by the central coast with a great view of the Pacific and saw a number of large ships "sitting" out there... a good ways off shore. So went to the AIS website and several of them were large container ships just "floating" about 1 knot or less. Destinaiotns... Oakland or Long Beach. Long Beach! Long ways north of Long Beach to be waiting. Gettin' croweded out there, fellahs!
Bullish BUY! BUY! BUY! Thanks Obama for creating a Selfie World!! This must be worth <at least> another 1000 point ramp on the dow no?
How many years away will this be felt in the S&P 500? 50 years? 500 years? or 5,000 years? Because this WILL have and impact at some point.
On a side note, if any of you kids shoot AR15s, you better stop by and pick up a box of M855 (green-tip rounds). The ATF is reclassifying it as "armor piercing" and are moving to have it banned.
Well isn't that just great...
Just as the Chinese invasion forces are massing offshore...
OT -- Nasty storm coming through VA now on its way up to Bahston.
Some of the strongest winds I've seen in this part of the world. They are in for a rough time.
Not if they remain offshore in the Pacific... unless it's a really really big global warming storm.
No snow right?
We have a couple of inches, no big deal. Just makes the mountains pretty.
But they are predicting an ice storm for Monday. Checked the larder. We'll be OK until Spring if need be...,
Spring of 2025;) Preppers uber alles.
Does this mean the trade deficit has stopped growing?
Whacks both exports and imports but on W Coast only, so data for a while 'prolly gonna be dicey.
So, just You Wait 'till Your Father Gets Home.. er I mean.... very susceptible to Eyeball adjustments a la BLS if y'all get my drift
stop posting these photographs!
it makes people nervous.
Wonder how many illegal ali... er, 'Snakehead Tourists' are caught out in this 'Rush Hour' traffic?
Just drove back from Georgetown up 270 to upper MoCo. Was 43 in Gtown, got to 495 (in 10 minutes) had dropped to 32, got caught in a blizzard/whiteout through Rockville.
Fear not. Bostonians have asshole in office.
Trojan Shipping Containers?
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/
"F" was asking if I wanted to go to the Ga thing this weekend...little late though.
"Thanks Obama for creating a Selfie World!!"
He's just like us...!
I have cousins in Longbeach. If I know them, they're blissfully unaware of what's going on, and if this passes over in a few days, probably will remain so.
What is the possibility that this is all designed to punish China? Who stands to lose the most here, the US or our suppliers, the largest of which is China?
I was thinking the same thing: tank the price of oil to piss off Russia and bring imports to a grinding halt to piss off China. War is on the menu for 2015/2016...
Knuks there's 29 major ports on the West Coast. I can assure you, there's container ships stacked all along the west coast.
It's like the late 80's early 90's when Long Beach San Pedro was being enlarged.
Oh yeah yeah yeah, Yen, but on the AIS (or whatever the name of it is website) you click on the ship and it'll tell ya' the destination. Even'll draw ya' a line where they been and they been a meanderin' about! Bunch up here were to Long Beach.
I count about 65 ships sitting in and off of Long Beach on AIS -I don't know...is that normal? Wouldn't seem to be.
"We be Ships & Shit" should have the current logistics.
San Diego terminal can't even offload pineapples & bananas?
I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.globe-report.com
If you are going to kill the economy you might as well get a head start by killing the supply chain.
Exactly! And if you think the economy is reeling now, just give it another year or two. You won’t even recognize the economy when it all comes crashing down. Don’t rely on your pensions, 401k, savings or checking accounts. Those can be wiped out overnight. Protect your wealth and store it in real money, silver!!!! A good way to help raise awareness and spread real money are these candles with real silver coins: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ScentSavers?ref=hdr_shop_menu
Dude, enough with the candle pimping.. We got it.. candle silver coin inside.
Sorry it annoys you. I really am. Just trying to help wake people up to the financial mess that we live in. And the candles are my way of spreading awarenss. I wih you well and hope you are successful in helping your loved ones prepare for the collapse!
The premise does not annoy me, the constant repetition annoys me when there are much better ways of waking people..
I'm sure there are better ways to wake people up. I tried the whole political thing when Ron Paul was runniing. I had mild success with sending youtube videos and links. Most just realized Romney and Obama both sucked. They didn't actually wake up though! I know he was huge in helping me wake up to the machine. I'm not trying to be rude, just curious, what are some other ways we can wake people up?
I know that I have had success when people actually discover their coin's value! How can a dime be worth $1.25??
The snowden leaks help wake a few of my family members up. I don't want to sit and wait around for another Ron Paul or Snowden to wake my loved ones. I truly believe we have a responsibility to our fellow man to sound the alarm.
Is it a Jesus candle?
They are the light (if they are lit and the room is otherwise dark) and they are aiming at disrupting the money changers, just as Jesus was. But no, these candles do not provide salvation like Jesus does.
oh yeah. I'm gonna buy $100K in candles and pay the sale tax on $17 plus per oz. S/ naw.
And what exactly is in those Chinese containers that couldn't be made in the USA? Pretty pathetic state of affairs when imports of Chinese crap is going to kill the economy.
Illegal immigrants?
"Stick a fork in it, it's done."
Waiting for fights to break out at Walmart.
Watching that would almost be a reason to go to Walmart. Almost.
WalMart fights used to be great in the battle axe, sword and hatchet department before they quit sellin' 'em when CA limited the number you could buy to 3 at a time.
Supply chain disruption scenario at Walmart? Just watch some black friday videos and imagine the hordes being really hungry, instead of just deal-hungry.
That's something that we might want to keep contained in the Walmarts themselves. Otherwise, a common sight might be something like this:
MORE BRAINS!
Classic! Perhaps a realistic expectation of what will happen in CA big cities when real water shortages happen.
Look around to see important items run out first.
Like TP in Venezuela.
I'm confident union money and CA politicians will make sure such things appear on TV (hell, thats where the hollywood is at) But really, pain now or more pain later... I say fuel those ships up, send 'em back loaded and cancel the checks. OH MY GOD!!! jus do it... Americans need to start separating wheat from chaff, and begin retooling at a personal level... independence is what made this country strong originally, and is the only thing that stands a chance of saving it, IMO... well, that, sound monetary policy and some divine intervention might help also
I would not be surprised if the US broke up over the next decade. Things are so twisted here that something has to break. We have a crony corporate globo-cop Orwellian nanny-spy state government that is too far in debt to ever be bailed out and frowns upon people being more self sufficient.
Historically, such freak shows (of this magnitude) don't last. In summary, the middle class that keeps the courtiers in finery, and the EBT cards goin' on the other side of the tracks, has been destroyed. That obviously doesn't account for foreign tribute by virtue of reserve currency, but that's not lookin' so beuno either. SH*t will hit the fan. Run m*therfucker :-) But then, you already did :-) Cheers.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a3sayDZz.QKc
Hollywood'll make a movie starring Steven Segal as an environmentally sensitive and caring port manager in Long Beach who stops all of the oil and bilge discharges during the strike which will be seen as a good thing reinforcing o'Jammie's new world view of the domestic peasantry returning to it's more normal hunter gatherer roots led by Lester Holt, the only trustworthy news man in America after Brian Williams proved once again that All white Anglo-Saxon protestant males are untrustworthy liars. In the movie, Brian will be replaced by Al Sharpton narrating the historical evolution of slave labor and politicians liberating the masses form the evil Colonials back in the Jamestown Colony. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) will, of course, play Pocahontas. It's due to be written and directed by Michael Moore and scheduled for release in about one year. Hillary Clinton will be endorsing the film and narrating the part about white men's infidelity damaging the familial nucleus and thus, the necessity of it Taking a Village.
Bullshit/Rubbish 2016
#yougottabefuckingkiddingme
So, nothing for Jenner then? Hmm... I was in town earlier at our version of the piggly wiggly and they had i guess people mag with s/he on the cover... i guess it's all true.. I asked the black girl running the till what the deal was with that and she just laughed... crazie f*cking honkies :-) I laughed too. DC and Hollywood are just funny, except for people gettin blown to shit and shit :-( that parts actually not funny
Yeah! Brucie... I mentioned that some months ago and everybody thought I was crazy.
You "folks" don't spend enough time in the grocery checkout lines where ya' get to read all the tripe for free.
Booyah!
OK OK, word has it that he's gonna play Mohammed in the Religion of Peace and Burning Cages episode. It's gonna augment the burning paper boat Brian Williams is floating in across the Flaming River of Blood in the Seventh Circle of Hell scenes. If they didn't do a transgender scene then it woulda been rated X, but they put it in for the GP. And planning to use it in kindergarten indoctrinations
Obviously Bruce is having an identity crises ......
BUT DON'T FORGET!
Bruce is Brave, Snipers are Cowardly
- New York Times
Bruce ... from Wheaties to Froot Loops
http://iotwreport.com/?p=273805
He should be able to make a few extra buxs on ebay if he has the doc put that thing in a pickle jar with some formaldehyde...
Hormone therapy causes cancer.
These people who bought into the hype of gender dysmorphoia bullshit can't quite just tuck it for a night or buy a strap on, they have to have risky surgery to destroy their bodies while taking cancer causing hormone therapy.
Instead of low impact solutions they go for the most expensive, damaging and irreversible solutions. It's great for big pharma as these people descend into a broken future.
In a few years the bubble of gender benders will go silent as they die painful deaths all alone. Their wrecked bodies won't be able to keep partners as the rest of the world keeps their genitalia and can offer a future without rot.
multiplexing at present i guess, ... he apparently "has the courage to run with it", count down to bolt-ons or maybe already pulled the trigger, not sure? s/he does have some striking features, and pretty eyes
i probably need to get out a little more
Mix in some footage of people working in Fontana in warehouses with no air-conditioning who can't unionize setting fire to Wal-Mart trucks while you're at it.
I don't care, as long as our oil doesn't come in there.
Can't...quite...squeeze...dis...i-phone...thru the damned straw.
Print moar!!!
As Mom would say,
you're a little touched in the head;)
This might be good for some retailers in one way: Much of the crap sitting in those containers is summer wear (clothing). This will give the retailers an opportunity to get last year's unsold goods onto the floor and dispose of it at reasonably decent margins compared to what they would get from bulk-goods distressed sale channels.
Seems like a fairly easy crisis to manufacture or blow out of proportion and use as a scapegoat for just about everything......
West Coast: Longshoreman Strike (er excuse me.... Longshorepersons)
East Coast: Polar Vortex III again, Part 2
Southern Border: Immigration Fears (racism) petrifies all consumers, hunkering down in basements with Kibble&Bit
Puereto Rico: Jase baby
South Side of Chicago: Bang, you're dead.
IMF revises US Q1 GDP est from 9.7% (q/q) to -0.5% annualized
lol. Knuks you're far too kind.
Now don't go confusing persons with pussy.
Bruce Jenner has me shook up enough.
Kill unions, one of the consummate evils of our time. Thank God our overlords agree with us.
While we're at it, how 'bout we ease back on that "financial repression" and make King Capital free to ride the ecstatic waves of the truly Free Market at long last?
Cut taxes and regulations, then let Job Creators get to work at what THEY do!
We can't afford the welfare state of useless eaters riding the back of productive society.
Etc.
Sympathy for the Greek Socialists is still hard to put into perspective.
Hate Unions, though: They ain't FAIR!
Unions would seem to be political and economic organizations.
The USA is totally political.
From Family, Church, Community Government, K-12 Teachers, Parents, Law Enforcement, Bankers, Chamber of Commerce, Business Leaders, Interest Groups, Gays, Minorities, Outsourcing Entities, Lobbyists, Tax Lawyers, ETC.
We are all political in the USA. Might as well say we are interest groups. You can't get away with anything if you have kids. Community enforcement & churches and Parents will rat you out for being unsafe, unpatriotic, or unpolitical.
Tattle Tail Culture too. Welcome to CP Services.
So yeah, Unions are as political and evil as lobbyist, Chamber of commerce, politicians, or Corporate Executives that Decapitalize US Industries, Suck Up Pensions & Assets, and sell out technology and property rights.
Demographics targeted by the machine, little more. The simplest separation is "how many commas in your net wealth?"
Is it t the food chain? How's the East Coast ports?.
What a coincidence, just as they are tryng to shove through a minimum wage increase which directly affects union wages.
I'll gladly trade you some cheap Chinese trinkets on ?
There is nothing coming in on those ships that we NEED...remember that.
exactly... this whole event is big fat yawn fest... if Houston and Newark shut down at the same time then maybe we would have something to talk about... as it stands, who gives a fuck let 'em strike
Unless I am mistaken, does a port not work both ways, you know, imports and EXPORTS?
What happens to our EXPORT market?
Also, ever check a product, and notice the label where is says assembled in the USA with FOREIGN and domestic components?
Most likely, the FOREIGN made component did not come from "North America" (i.e. Mexico).
I used to hate unions and favored capitalism and such. Now that fascism has taken over, frack the corps far and wide, however you can do it. Loving what is going on....turns out I already have my fill of chinese trinkets so it does not affect my personal economy.
Nothing wrong with unions. Workers should be free to enter into voluntary agreements, and the alternative is evident in our current economy in which good workers lose their jobs to cheap foreign labor,to the detriment of the consumer. Unless you enjoy customer service calls to India. The problem is union corruption. The same problem that causes fascism. There are always going to be sociopaths who hijack whatever system exists.
Well said.
Just remember, a system must exist in order for it to be hijacked. No system, more diffuse hijacking....but at least there are options.
But they have their own banks.
They're fascist banksters, too. There's nothing voluntary about unions in many states, like Missouri. If you work in a union job, you pay union dues even if you aren't in the union. That is not voluntary.
Good!
Too many dock workers with $147,000 salaries because we import everything and don't make anything because the work has been off shored other than cluster munitions and white phosphorous to send to places like Iraq and Ukraine that aren't part of that commerical commerce!!!
Hey hey hey hey hey... hold on a minute.
We give the cluster bombs and willy pete away for free to foreigners. Gonna be placed in the State Dept foreign aide budget next year.
Oh Jeez, Knuks.... quit giving them ideas, FFS
You know they have a ZH sarc idea miner...
Every time one of us makes a sarc totalitarian idea, the computer reads it, lets 'em know, and ta-da, it becomes reality!
We are the third largest exporters in the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_exports
Uh, were #2, and barely above Germany that has less than a third of our population.
"We are the third largest exporters in the world." ??
Leaving the export of dollars aside, once you subtract aiplanes and armaments from those numbers, there is damn little that is exported by container.
I would venture that 70 to 90 percent of containers are returned to China empty.
Ugh.
Baltic Dry Vortex
I'll bet you're smiling about now? You GTFO just in time. My best to the Mrs.
We got out just in time. Best to you too Yen.
Well jeepers, I am just so glad its not a "collapse" because if it were a collapse I would run in circles with my hair on fire.. Seriously.. dock coolies on the west coast are not taking this banker facade economy down.. We have many other real threats to concern ourselves with like (love or hate, I dont give a shit) pissing off Putin enough that he rolls into Kiev..
Goldman Sach pays an average salary of $383,000 per year and no one bats an eye. A longshoreman with overtime making $250,000 and having to live with San Fran housing prices is reviled. Far as I am concerned the longshoreman are making an honest living. They haven't destroyed the economy and required a government bailout.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/16/goldman-sachs-pay-employ...
Almost everyone here agrees that a strong middle class is the backbone of the American economy, yet so many here cry foul at a dock worker making decent money (barely decent given SF cost of living). It is almost as if ideology is more powerful than logic.
LOL, you mean all 1000 of them in the whole west coast? These 1000 workers can shut down the nation through their monoply power? These wages are unsustainable, and in two years many workers on the west coast supporting the ports will be out of a job when this work shifts south to the Gulf.
I agree they will lose this fight, and the oligarchs will win. Only the oligarchs have monopoly power. Is that supposed to be a good thing?
No sh*t. The dockworkers make too much, and its better to give that money to the dock owners?
They use violence and put their own children in harm's way to get that salary. They directly conduct immoral actions that hurt others to get their material wealth.
At least Goldman workers pay others to distance themselves from causing direct physical harm to others. That's at least good for the economy by spreading the wealth, hahaha
how much training is there for longshoreman...could weeks driving a fork lift? Goldman requires a master in BS and awesome grades at baffling the shit out of people.
We just added a few extra days onto humanity's timeline by temporarily reducing fossil fuel emissions.
Get to work planners. December 2015 will be here before you know it.
Greedy unions. $147,000 average salary and they have the gall to go on strike. Ridiculous. It's almost 3 times what the average American makes for a job a bar code scanner could probably do.
I love the irony that most of them have their job because of all the outsourcing of manufacturing, this country imports everything now.
If they really cared about their fellow working man and solidarity, they'd make sure it stay closed for good. Instead, they'll happily continue their role as long as the price is right.
"...[Bridge two:] Shipping powders back and forth
Singing black goes south and white comes north.
In a whole world full of petty wars,
Singing I got mine and you got yours.
And the current fashion sets the pace,
Lose your step, fall out of grace.
And the radical, he rants in rage,
Singing someone's got to turn the page!
And the rich man in his summer home,
Singing just leave well enough alone.
But his pants are down, his cover's blown...
And the politicians throwin' stones,
So the kids they dance
And shake their bones,
And it's all too clear we're on our own.
Singing ashes, ashes, all fall down.
Ashes, ashes, all fall down..." -- "Throwin' Stones", Grateful Dead
So is it time to unload ships at sea, go to other ports or just turn around and head back to china. Its bad for those who tie their work to shifting sands. Best solution is to close the port for a year and force industry to find alternitive and vary expensive solutions.
The more expensive the better. Why, diversification, the greater the diversifications the greater the impact on wages, inflation and economy. But the effect is only temperary. Then you need ever greater diversifications so industry cannot adapt.
Forceing industry to use mom and pop over relationship-parternerships means greater diversifications of power, autonomy and control for everyone not of the centralised control.
american (import all goods)
Chinese (export all goods)
Who will die first?
Russia. We're going to trade Siberia to China for our 1.3 trillion in bonds and call it even. You guys start packing.
What's on those ships? We need to buy up the existing supply and exploit our neighbors.
Hell, yea!
Toilet paper. Best of luck extorting Venezuela.
Wait a minute. You think that just because somebody is making a $147,000 per year because their work is in demand or they have managed to protect their jobs via whatever machanism they can grab onto (i.e. unions), is somehow more reprehensible than what the bankers did and are doing on a continuous basis?
So the banksters buy the government while the revolving door at the Pentagon and the SEC continues the incestuous raping of the country for the benefit of the few. While people are bitching about about somebody with a high school education and a slight advantage because he knew somebody to get an apprenticeship with the Longshoreman's union and got a job at $147k a year??
You have got to be either fucked in the head, or be smoking some good shit. Go flush yourself down the toilet please.
I’m working on getting a government job. Hopefully by spring I’m in.
The enlistment center will take you right fucking now.
Sorry fella, greed is greed, no matter where it is!
Mode (statistics), The mode is the value that appears most often in a set of data.
It ain't near $40K, must be more like $18-$21K.
They leave out that they didn't make the 147 until 20 years in...find any professional able to live in Southern CA that doesn't pull that coin with that experience.
Not to mention that modern dock work is more like running a robotics factory with the added fun of customs regulations factored in.
Then consider that the portion of private gigs covered by unions is what 7% now when it used to be much higher some decades ago and you may get the idea that all this rah rah deregulation bullshit hasn't panned out since the 70s and was really just a windfall for the same fat assholes that are gape-raping the American public today (think Carlysle Group...old money warships that hollow out and consolidate while lobbying against things like say...unions).
When that canal is finished in Nicaragua, it will be toast for Caifornia.
Why would anyone build a canal in a country with volcanoes?
They were easy to push around.
When that canal is finished in Nicaragua, it will be toast for Caifornia.
When that false flag happens in Nicaragua, they'll toast in California.
Maybe its here somewhere, but how does this related to the traditional Chinese New Year - Feb 19 +30 days?
Back in the day we always doubled up our pre-holiday order financing in order to over come the complete shutdown of China domestic production and logistics for a month during New Year.
Between this and the goods drop by March it will interesting to see if this story gets legs.
Hong bao na lai.
These guys aren't union. They're fascists.
They put their infants on train tracks in protests. They kidnap people and commit acts of violence against innocent bystanders.
Let's go Somali Pirate on those ships?
Sure, i will take your boat and rifle=)
How are we gonna fence all these tampons now that the crew jumped ship?
I'm not sure I care. We can't get our Chinese trinkets? Awwww. US factory or retailers shut down because they can't get their Chinese trinkets? Awwww. Will anybody learn anything from this? Nawwww.
Will they just build a big port in Ensenada and bypass US ports? LOL. Good luck with that. Nicaragua canal? Sure, that will help with about half, maybe a third, big ships still won't fit through it.
Long Beach port facility is antique anyway, they ought to ship 90% of those containers by rail to Bakersfield or someplace for further distribution, rather than load onto trucks or destination trains in limited space. Should hardly be an eighteen wheeler anywhere near the port. Would also reduce longshore jobs by 80%.
I'm sure plenty of stuff is getting through at other ports anyway, it's only LB/LA that is struck, right? Whatever.
You go, Union dudes. Shut it down and make the multi-nationals squeal with pain. Gonna need some humongous buybacks to cover this.
Now if only the East Coast guys would start slowing down too.
Okay, okay, I realize that's a practical impossibility but you know what I'm saying here.
It's gonna crash anyhow, and I don't want to be 80 years old and in a wheelchair when it happens. So let's get it on.
IMHO, Fuck the Pacific Maritime Union in their collective asses. Hope they get karma-fucked like the air traffic control operators got handed by Reagan.
The PMA is the Pacific Maritime Association which is the employer's union controlled by very wealthy foreign ship owners used to getting their way all around the world. The ILWU is the longshoreman's union.
Every day there is any overtime day to be had, the PMA puts a stop to vessel work. The union laborers are ready & willing to get these ships serviced. The PMA says the ILWU is "slowing down operations", which is total BS. They also say there is no room in the yards for containers, which is also BS. Anyone who looks around can/will see there is plenty of room. The PMA is screwing around with the economy at the expense of everyone else. It's pretty hard to work when they don't order the workers needed to do the job. In addition, when work is ordered, the PMA only orders about 40% of the workforce normally ordered. To top it all off, the 2nd & 3rd shifts have been eliminated for close to 6 weeks now. The ILWU wants to work. The PMA are not allowing the ILWU to work. PERIOD!
Don't forget union demands and company offers.
Dafuq is the free shit army supposed to do without their blowout Wal-Mart garbage to spend their yellenbux on valentine's day?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTlR6Cu6H4Y
I've got it:
Just wait until the Apple Stores run out of itoys, the androids run out, and the FSA can't get their $250 sneakers, and other crap at the wal mart (as mentioned before).
There will be hell to pay then!
2007 - 2008 all over again. They're dropping anchor. Union issues are one thing, but congestion is reality and it cannot continue any longer. I've said it to one guy at my company, 6 months ago: "this will not end well, 2008 again". And he just said, "I hope not". He probably earns 4x what I earn. He's top management. Anyhow, something is out of sync. And these guys (they're not bad at all), but they fail to match theory with reality. For example, these vessels that are so large, OK, all shiny & chique & cost efficient (for shipping co's, re fuel), but they seriously mess up berth availability and so on. Other vessels are inbound, you know.. Regarding blue collar workers, dock workers, they indeed earn alot, but they do one hell of a job. Especially Lashing Crews. These guys are to be granted "Die Hard" status for what they do. Other dock workers, they just earn too much for what they do. It's not normal anymore. One nightshift for a Chief Foreman, let's say €500. And they work every day of the month. They don't take vacation. A regular foreman: €4000 to €5000 per month (for 30 days). Weird huh.
What Real Economy?
Thoughts after reading some of the comments:
1. Greed is as American as apple pie.
2. Companies try to maximize profits, and workers try to maximize wages and benefits. So, who is at fault and where is the problem?
3. Will the Free Shit Army riot when WalMart shelves go empty?
4. Being American is all about having the "Right Stuff". How can Americans get the Right Stuff when WalMart can't get shipments from China?
5. Will California run out of sunscreen?
6. Isn't it about time for the Maritime Employers to seek a subsidy from China to help cover the cost of employing all those longshoremen to unload all that stuff from China that supports China's trade surplus? It's against the law to pay a bribe to a foreigner to get business (Foreign Corrupt Practises Act), but is it against the law to accept a bribe from a foreigner to do your business in America?
7. Since longshoring in California is a business that serves China, why is China not paying for it as a service business? Well, actually the exporters in China and the rest of Asia are paying for it by paying freight rates which have to include longshoring expense. So the increase in longshoring expense is going to be added to freight rates and passed off to the Asian exporters, unless it makes the struck ports non-competitive so that freight comes in elsewhere. Raising longshoring wages will raise US GDP, so it's all good.
8. If on-strike workers spend their money and time off on hookers and blow, is that good for GDP?
9. How long does the strike have to last before it puts workers in Asia on layoff?
10. Will all the freighters in the Ocean off Long Beach cause the ocean level to rise? Will California's sewers back up when the ocean levels rise? Sheeee...... You get the idea.