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Dockworkers Reportedly Reach Deal Following US Labor Secretary Threat
Following threats from the US labor secretary "that they have until Friday to reach a contract or they’ll have to negotiate in Washington D.C.," Dockworkers and their bosses, according to JOC.com, have reached an agreement (despite Reuters reports that no deal was reached last night).
As Reuters reports, no deal was reached last night...
Shipping executives and union leaders for dockworkers at 29 West Coast ports ended a third straight day of contract talks late on Thursday without a settlement, despite arm-twisting from the U.S. labor secretary, but planned to meet again on Friday.
Labor Secretary Tom Perez joined the talks in San Francisco on Tuesday at the behest of President Barack Obama, who has come under growing political pressure to intervene in a dispute that has rippled through the trans-Pacific commercial supply chain and could cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, representing 20,000 dockworkers, has been locked in negotiations for nine months with the bargaining agent for shippers and terminal operators, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA).
Despite threats from the government...
The U.S. Labor Secretary on Thursday told the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association that they have until Friday to reach a contract or they’ll have to negotiate in Washington D.C.
But now, as JOC.com reports,
- *PMA, ILWU SAID TO HAVE REACHED A CONTRACT YDAY: JOC.COM
West Coast dockworkers, employers reached 5-yr agreement last night, JOC.com reports, citing unidentified people familiar with internal reports by a “major forwarder.”
However...
http://t.co/ZMfUomEmmY now hearing conflicting reports on whether ILWU, PMA reached deal last night. Will update as we learn more.
— JOC.com (@JOC_Updates) February 20, 2015
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Get yer Rally Caps!
Yeah, they're MADE IN CHINA, and will now be fully stocked on the Wally shelves if you can get past the 400 lb hippo in front of you who is buying it with a SNAP card claiming it's an edible foodstuff.
Correction - hippo on a scooter
Sorry! I missed that because a fight broke out in aisle 10 while I was typing.
Did the Dockworkers Union bend a knee ? how ?
China needs to Unload their Shit... HURRY!!!!
Yesterday I heard the California Citrus was not being shipped to China any more (one of their largest destinations) because it was taking 40 days delivery dock to dock, vs. 20 days maximum requirement.
Half of US produce is grown in California, and citrus being a large part.
Can't wait for some deals on limes and lemons.
Been getting some awesome California mandarin oranges at Aldi. We are on our second bag. My daughter ate 5 the first day and she usually doesn't eat much produce.
You mean Cuties?... those are great
I have commissioned the fabrication of a Forced Air and Propane Fueled forge/furnace for melting metals. This requires that I have crucibles. Well we decided upon Iron Crucibles. These are to be fabricated from 4" diameter, by 8" long threaded Pipe Nipples with caps.
So I went to the warehouses in the San Diego area, yesterday, to acquire these. There were a totsl of three Caps and three nipples in two different stores in the entire county. The cost for this forged iron was $180. Furthermore it took an hour's time to make the trip to get them with the costs of the Gasoline burned. These parts were Made in China.
It is too bad if someone else needs to fabricate a sewer cleanout as Current Construction Code REQUIRES that Iron is used. That unfinished house will sit and the crew will be idle...
In fact the people at the warehouse told me directly, without my questions, that parts were sitting out in Long Beach, or in ships in the channel, and people here cannot finish projects due to lack of material.
So America has developed into another "Banana Republic", exporting Citrus Fruit, and nothing much else of industrial value? We depend upon Chinese factories to ship us ironworks. That is the reason that the Longshoreman have leverage and a slowdown cripples and shreds that which is left of our hollowed out economy.
Yet so many people here want to talk about the fat slob at Wallyworld buying plastic crap that fills up landfills instead of the utter collapse of our industrial production capacity.
It just is demonstrative that even the typical reader on Zerohedge has no clue as to the MAGNITUDE of the Economic Destruction that has been heaped upon America by these multinational criminal oligarchs.
Shifting production from America to the Third World has been a total policy disaster for America. H Ross Perot was correct. America has been transformed into a Banana Republic, an agricultural exporter. Without the illegal alien tending to our crops, harvesting the crops, there would be no production at all..
Fruits? You want to write about fucking oranges? WHO IS PAYING YOU?
Just in time? No. We are way past time. We have run out.
So I am so impressed by the shallowness of dialoge here that I will leave you to contemplate the crap that you read here.
What the hell? Hey. Did you see fatso run into those cans at the Wallyworld yesterday on his scooter which was made in China? Man that was hillarious. It was better than watching DWTS as it was live.
This is much better and distracting. And besides. We do not have to face the dismal realities of our economic demise when we can watch fatso make a fool of himself...
Tall Tom,
As I posted in another thread a couple of weeks ago, my bro-in-law is a master plumber. He reworked a portion of a natural gas line at a school building because of a leak. When he tested the line after the repair, there was a leak. It became apparent that the fittings were not performing well. He went back to the plumbing supply to find parts that were all made in the USA. That was quite a task. Finally found American made gas fittings, did his repair work all over again and the work passed his pressure test. He says the foreign plumbing supplies are getting worse.
This was a gas leak at a school. Not funny.
Bullish for landfills. It's where all this junk ends up.
Do we get our ChiCom plastic sex toys or not? 50 Shades has got all the US housewives all worked up.
I'm sorry, but fuck unions directly in the face at this point in history.
Labor rackets. The idea that businesses should be forced to negotiate with some entity is bullshit. Fire them all and scab up, bitchez.
So what happens when one of your 12 year old workers starts crying because she needs to go take a leak. Do you slap her or put her in the timeout corner?
All Hail China Junk
I really, really need just one moar T-shirt; then I'll have an even 3,000 [somewhere in my closets]!
They need to break up the labor monopoly to free competition. Lots of people want jobs at the docks which pays better than doctor's salaries. Ludicrous, especially as it impacts national economic security
Stop being an economic Peeping Tom. Worry about how much you are making and leave the rest of us alone. Take your socialist bullshit somewhere else.
You're just jealous cause your cheese is now on that boat.
You're just jealous cause your cheese is now on that boat.
I need this shit to come in, otherwise I have no inventory for my customers.
Not everything out of China is crap!
"I need this shit to come in, otherwise I have no inventory for my customers. "
Get a clue: source it local.
Stop making yourself subject to all of the avarices and whims of every skimmer between you and the product.
China and the off-shore production peddlers are just putting layers of skim between you and your source to pinch your margin.
This problem is only going to get worse for you and your customers as time goes on.
You weren't carefully rendered 100%v dependent on the vast foreign and domestic financing/production/import/distribution chain and all of these over-paid basksters, over-paid union dock douches, etc. for your benefit.
The various bottlenecks along the way are all designed for value extractions.
You have trapped yourself in a system where everyone up-stream can extract that value and shove the cost of their imposition onto your bottom line.
Get a clue: you are getting fucked and you are fucking up the whole economy around you by playing their rentier's wealth extraction and economic toll booth games...
Throxx buddy, you can't sell something that doesn't exist. America produces very little anymore. It's been game over for more than a decade on US "manufacturing."
ThroxxofVron...
Damn it!!! If I could have bought American Made Iron Pipe yesterday don't you think that I'd have bought American made pipe?
We fucking exported ENTIRE FACTORIES. We do not have an Ironworks Manufacturing capacity in this country anymore. Read my post above.
I have got the damn clue that I am getting fucked, in the ass, without the K- Y Jelly if I play their God Damned game. That is why I am FABRICATING ALL THINGS, OUT OF SCRAP WHENEVER POSSIBLE to minimize start up expenses, including the METAL FORGE.
I will be local and I will be fabricating Custom PARTS through Lost Foam Casting, green sand with forms...amongst other uses which I've planned for that forge.
Metalsmithing will be a useful and marketable skill post collapse.
' Shitting in the dock of the Bay '
Those workers already average $150k in base pay. Time to break that union.
It's none of your god damn business what these workers, or anybody else for that matter, have in compensation. Stop being envious and just worry about yourself.
...said the bankster and the oligarch.
So you are preoccupied with what fellow middle class Americans make as well? Mind your own fucking business and worry about yourself. Take your socialist bullshit elsewhere.
Speaking of bankers and Oligarchs, why were you standing with dick in hand as $23 trillion of private debt was heaped on to the U.S. taxpayer? To worried about what you next door neighbor's take home pay is I'm sure.
Oh, the fucktard's feelings got hurt...
Let me put this in simple terms so your limited mind might be able to grasp the point...
This is not simply a private contract between between private parties.
The Longshoreman's Union has a State Sanctioned Monopoly on Labor at the port, same as the banksters do with the money supply.
Given the importance of trade to economic health of society and the State, particularly in light of the transition to Just in Time inventory management, and the concentration of goods from major trade partners arriving at West Coast ports., THIS IS MY BUSINESS, and every other Americans' as well.
Your notion of butt out of my extortion racket, is laughable.
You are contradicting yourself and do not even know it. Important to America's economic health was the same exact reason given for the $23 trillion corporate and financial services industry bailout.
You can try to rationalize your preoccupation with your neighbor 's salary all you want. What happens with the West Coast Longshoremen have no bearing on you what so ever. Well, other than your dick getting hard because someone somewhere might be making more money and have better benefits than you. Pure economic envy.
Do even know what the word contradiction means?
Do you have any idea what the head of industrial engineering at a 100 billion dollar bank makes over the course of decade?
This isn't about salary envy.
But based on your lack of response about my point on MONOPOLY, and your lie of omission (or ignorance) below in regards to "what is deemed appropriate for both sides" in light of the Labor Monopoly and Sole Operating Concession granted by the State... you don't have a suitable response, and there isn't one.
So you can suck Big Swinging Bankster Dick or you can suck Little Labor Mafia Oligarch Dick - makes no difference to me, but perhaps the union boss actually needs a bj - since a decade ago East Coast Union bosses were only pulling down over USD 3/4 million per year in salary and benefits (it's amazing what's in my insurance file-- they get their 2&20 too... and rape their dues paying customers like low-budget-bench-warming squids).
You're not doing a very persuasive job of defending your fellow kleptocrats .
Again, lots of words but it boils down to one thing. You are overly obsessed with how a fellow middle class American may, or may not be, compensated. The "big union boss" bullshit died a very long time ago. Trying to conflate a longshoremen union with the Oligarchs socializing all their private debt is beyond ignorant. Your neighbor is not a kleptocrat and he is not the reason you are ineffectual in this world.
My response has been direct from the beginning. Your dick gets hard because someone has the guts to demand a certain compensation package. Mind your own fucking business. Now you are just being pathetic.
actually this is everyone's business because we all pay their salaries indirectly when we buy all the chinese crap they offload. (personally, i think it may be good that the cost of bringing in chinese crap is going up.) there of plenty of workers getting laid off of oilfield jobs right now that would gladly do the same job for less. why shouldn't they be allowed the oportunity to work? you keep calling everyone else "socialist", but you are the one pushing socialist ideas.
For Christ's sake! You sincerely believe the chicken came before the egg. We all pay your salary because we buy whatever shit product you produce. Those longshoremen take their wages and subsidize you. Of course you didn't think about this issue for longer than two seconds and can't accept reality. Economics applies to everyone but you.
But let's play your stupid ass zero sum game. How about all those oilfield workers come do your job for less? I'm sure they all would be happy to have your job.
1) Median HOUSEHOLD income in the United States was $51,900 in 2013. At a median longshoreman's union INCOME of $150,000 the monopolistic kleptocrats you defend are in TOP 10% of households based on only 1.0 incomes per household. Your a either dsihonorable lying scum or an idiot.
2) You continue to toss unsubstantiated ad hominems and ignore the State Sponsored Monopoly of the kleptocrat unions scum
3) The Union members did NOT have to walked off the job in an effort to EXTORT MOAR MONEY by leveraging their monopoly (even Hank Paulson showed up for work...).
4) The ONLY good member of ILWU13 is a DEAD MEMBER OF ILWU13. They should be strung up right next to Jamie Dimon and the Oompa Loompa of Marriner Eccles. And when the scum are dead... the houses, bank accounts and retirement and college savings of their widows and orphans should be seized in compensation for the economic damage done by the strike.
Are you fucking retarded? No bearing? They drive up everyone's cost, while reducing the supply of labor. WTF does it have to do corporate welfare? If I don't like the union mafia then I must like corporate welfare?
No, the fact that you conflate the two shows your economic ignorance. The union mafia is pure bullshit. That mafia includes your fucking neighbors. The longshoremen or any other union organized entity didn't cause the entire financial system in the Western World to collapse in 2008. They weren't out there selling synthetic investment instruments to the world.
You're fucking radio told you this longshoremen strike is a big deal. Your radio is betting on your economic stupidity. It was a bet well placed.
Actually when there's an entity that artificially boosts what the compensation level is it is our business.
Unions cause unemployment when they decide winners vs losers.
Bullshit! If your employees are unionized their contract negotiators enter negotiation with you on compensation, benefits, etc. The final agreement is what is deemed appropriate for both sides. Don't bitch and complain because your employees have a say in that agreement.
Actually, asshat, it is the employer who has been hamstrung by Government.
Tens of thousands would take the jobs at $40 an hour with those benefits.
These turkeys are just moving around some large boxes.
Just put up some We're Hiring signs and let the union clowns start swimming on to their better job.
Be very careful when determining how hard, physically or mentally taxing someone else's job is. My guess is you would piss yourself after doing 15 minutes of longshoremen's work.
Brilliant braniac, lets just pay fast food workers their $15 an hour because it won't affect prices at all. Labor is typically the largest input cost for any business.
By your standard why worry about anything anyone does. Dolt!
Mind your own fucking business! You worry about your salary, let the rest of us worry about ours. Salary envy is not a noble trait.
If you want to worry about something asshat, worry about the $23 trillion in private corporate and financial services debt that has been socialized. Stop snooping around your neighbor's economic underwear drawer.
http://www.free-bullion-investment-guide.com/price-inflation.html
Scroll down to see the price of cars almost doubled from 1970's to 1980's and tripled from 1960's to 1980's, right when manufacturing was sent overseas.
Cheap labor has NOT affected the price of automobiles.
I'm not worried about my salary. I don't get one. I pay my own way now. Frankly I couldn't care less what anyone makes. I have no salary envy. So how about this, GO FUCK YOURSELF with your wrongheaded thinking. M-kay pumpkin?
As for the 23 trillion heaped on the taypayer, I'm no longer one by choice. Part of the purpose why I stopped working. What the fuck have you done about it ASSHAT?
Perfect! Keep cashing those Social Security checks (not a bad thing, you earned it) and enjoy retirement. And because you now agree with me that a longshoreman's salary is none of your business, you may move to posting bullshit about another topic.
BUZZ, wrong again fuckhead. It's all my money. I haven't taken a dime from the government.
I never agreed with you from the perspective that it's none of my business. I said I don't have salary envy.
So I see you must be like most accountants and eCONomists. You read into things what you choose, to arrive at a predetermined conclusion.
You sir, are a piece of shit. FOAD!
The game is rigged. Your statements say ignore that part of the rigged game and concentrate on this other part. Baltic Dry says the west coast ports are going to be downsized.
My comments say mind your own fucking business. Let management and the longshoremen deal with the Baltic Dry, compensation, etc
And yes, I'm going to ignore the deliberations between longshoremen and their management. The longshoremen didn't create, sell and bet against debt instruments that destroyed the world economy.
You knew your false equivalency was bullshit, right?
Are cars cheaper now that they're not being made by the unions?
Are cars cheaper now that they're not being made by the unions?
So tell me, if the workers are making 150K what do you think management is making and why the fuck are you not on THEIR case. Yeah, lets Union bust and break the middle class some more.
You are calling members of the top decile of US income earners -"middle class". If you really want to play the sympathy card and use "middle class" let's cut every Union Members' income and benefits by $100,000, the they will be in the middle of the middle class.
why is it any of your business what management makes? get your snooping nose out of their economic underwear drawer.
The plan should have been to put out some "We're Hiring Here" signs and let the union suck hemorrhoids.
Let them have a Hostess party if they cannot work for $75 an hr.
More mis direction. No deal, just like Greece.
Coming soon automation, it's not like Marlon Brando is still unloading ships by hand.
Exactly. That per worker productivity number will soon rise. The unions are set to price themselves out of the market.
Let's see someone try to unionize a fully automated port. Besides, computerized machines are not subject of Obamacare guidelines and Cadillac taxes. Problems solved.
If machines can flip burgers, machines can unload ships.
Unions hold the economy and government hostage. Could government cost 1/3 less if non-union business could bid against Unions in a free, open, competitive market?
NOTHING would be cheaper without Unions. Remember how NAFTA was supposed to bring down prices? The difference just goes into management and shareholder pockets. Fuck them.
.
This. It isn't like if these dockworkers are paid less the rest of us will be paid more, or that prices will be lowered so that our goods are cheaper.
That's a great third grade argument. The price of everything = cost + profit. The consumer pays these low skilled asshats.
BTW- what we, the U.S. tax payers pay government workers and for government projects IS OUR BUSINESS.
NOT........no deal..it was all Algo hype....
So - if I wanna' walk in at the dock and try to get my little crew some work with the Port Captain, will there be a problem with the existing unionized dock workers??? I'd bet that each and every one of them would threaten my guys with death by tire iron. AND YOU SAY MIND MY OWN BUSINESS?? Phuck off
Show the dockworkers the robot who can make 300 burgers in an hour and an agreement could be resolved in mere minutes.
I have been going to sea for 20 years. I can tell you that the longshoremen appear to be grossly overpaid. Then, when you take into account there are almost no Shipping jobs left because your competition works for $400 dollars a month I feel ok. Maersk and NYK and MSC all take advantage of our business climate to take all of that revenue over seas, some are even subsidized buy the US government, I think, at least someone is going to get
their pound o flesh. The money they make is pennies on a pair of Nikes. I can tell you one thing, if they took a 30% cut in the contract not a single American would benefit. It would be lost overseas. Look at Maersks profit, do they really need any more at the expense of our standard of living?