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Q2 GDP 'Excuse' Emerges: Up To 16,000 West Coast Port Truckers Go On Strike
The collapse of Q1 GDP has been placed squarely on the shoulders of weather (too hot, too cold, and definitely not just right) and the dockworkers strike which shut 29 seaports. As Q1 GDP plunged, so Q2 was lifted hockey-stick-like to keep the growth dream alive but so far in Q2, data has not shown the bounce expected... so we are going to need a bigger excuse.
We have found one!
As NBC Los Angeles reports, truck drivers who haul goods from the nation's busiest port complex in Los Angeles and Long Beach went on strike Monday in the latest action as part of a long-running labor dispute (it wasn't immediately clear how many of the 16,000 truckers would walk off the job).
About 200 of the estimated 500 drivers associated with the four companies were on the picket lines Monday, and the job action will expand to cargo terminals later in the day, a Teamsters union representative said during a morning conference call announcing the strike. Some secondary picketing will target specific trucks as they arrive at other locations.
The strike involving drayage firms, which specialize in short-haul tansport, is not expected to shut down all port business. All port terminals remained opened Monday morning.
...
About 16,000 drivers work at the ports, most of them independent contractors for trucking companies. The truckers say they face shrinking wages and want to become employees of the trucking companies, which they say would mean better wages and workplace protections.
The drivers have been subjected to "persistent wage theft," said Teamsters spokeswoman Barb Maynard. Striking truckers argue they are improperly classified as independent contractors.
It was too soon to say what, if any, effect a work stoppage would have on business, said ports representatives.
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Trucking companies have argued that driver pay is good and picketing at the ports did not represent the majority of drivers. They object especially to the timing of the unrest as the port is still recovering from a dockworkers strike.
"I believe now is a horrible time to introduce any slow-downs to the supply chain," Weston LaBar, executive director of the Harbor Trucking Association, said in a statement late last week. "If they want to be a part of the real solution perhaps they should suspend these efforts until we get closer to a normal flow of cargo in the San Pedro Bay. We don't want to put any more jobs in our region in jeopardy."
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I'm glad this can't affect the price of my stawks.
Let me guess... they want MOAR?
Median truckers $39K per year.... contractors $29K per year. They should have become dock workers...
http://www.ibtimes.com/labor-troubles-return-los-angeles-long-beach-port...
It's California.
Let them drink cake!
But I still love the current center of the universe, silicon valley.
It could snow again soon there, right?
Seems it never snows in southern California
Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before
But girl don't they warn ya
When it falls, it really falls.
Out of work, I'm out of my head
Out of self respect, I'm out of bread
I'm underloved, I'm underfed, I wanna go home
It never snows in California, But bankers, let me warn ya……
When it falls, it really falls.
Apologies to the writers and artists…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsy0eyYE2qE
So powerful are a banker's bills,
Where creditors demand their due;
They break up counters, doors, and tills,
And leave the empty chests in view.
Thus when an earthquake lets in light
Upon the god of gold and hell,
Unable to endure the sight,
He hides within his darkest cell.
As when a conjurer takes a lease
From Satan for a term of years,
The tenant's in a dismal case,
Whene'er the bloody bond appears.
A baited banker thus desponds,
From his own hand foresees his fall,
They have his soul, who have his bonds;
'Tis like the writing on the wall.[4]
Oh god no only Goldman can have the precious inflation!
They shall not have more! Peons, back to work. Be happy about your fair share of fiat.
Bullish
ur wrong, stawks will soar on news of a shutdown.
NewSpeak would have us replace "You're" with "UR." Fight that. It's a small thing, but big changes start with small acts of resistance.
It's horribly expensive to go to work and make a living nowadays. Working is very VERY expensive.
Riots, strikes and shit numbers on everything right before Fed meeting.... perrrrrrfect. Hyperinflation it is.
. dang
well this is going to boost stock...because if economy is down...more free money to ramp stocks. Going to make the tulip mania like a yard sale!
bullish
Very localized to 4 trucking cos. No biggie - LAX/ LGB is a dog hole best of times, but looks good compared to 3rd shithole known as Port of Oakland.
At least it got better than it used to be in pay and that's partly because the drivers had support of those who drive on the Long Beach Freeway every day (aka trucker's freeway). Seriously if you're a car you have to learn to fit in when entering from some on ramps.
I spent 20 years in logistics and in the LA area the pay got so bad that the drivers were paid less than $100, and more like around $60 to do a round trip ocean container drop. Of course the key here was to have one to bring back as well. So the trucks were very dangerous as driver's couldn't afford to keep them up and people were dying on the freeway as "those" trucks became huge safety hazards, but it's a bit better now.
If the valley girls in Beverly hills don't get their callimari there's going to be HELL to pay.
Wal*Mart plumbers are depending on that container of cheap-ass Chinese plastic pipe. Now they'll have to delay the store reopenings another six months!
Oh, thank God.
Now maybe there won't be so much soot here - everything in Long Beach gets covered with a fine black dust.
Who wants all the crap made in China anyway? Close the port and keep it closed. Let capitalism do its thing.
Yaaaaaaaa. Vacation that's what I like about California.
No biggie unless they shut down the freeways and railroads.
Oh wait, the Long Beach Fwy was closed overnight, just a coincidence I'm sure.
How much is more of nothing?
Soon that is what they are going to have, and one day soon, a whole lot of Chinese boot in their asses.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.
16000 beaner visas just went by the invisible border.
Union overreach once again.
How many truck drivers will ultimately be out of work once freight stops coming through California ports? Anyone remember the supermarket fiasco where the unions had everyone go on strike only to cause the eventual closure of many chain grocery stores?
The usual response after thousands of drivers are out of work will be this:
" The Union representatives could not be reached for comment"
I had a friend at a pulp mill that shut down in like manner. Strange thing is, he still looked on it as a kind of victory. Union types have their own distinct flavour of entitlement religion. New economic realiities will test many faiths. Unable to cope or adapt, some will snap in various ways, generating grim headlines.
Standards of living must fall everywhere, even among the highly-paid and coddled: why does government protect these workers from wage competition??? The social welfare system and minimum wages are a subsidy to such overpaid workers with seniority.
Wage disparities are one of many imbalances that can be traced to bad monetary policy.
Well, for the excuse, they don't actually have to have the strike, they only have to say they're having one. Market fixed. Buy, buy!
Bullish, keep buying them there stawks sheeple
Cannot let a crisis go to waste. Seriously do any of you think these truck drivers are the cause for the bad numbers. If the government actually thought this was the cause the strike would be ended pronto!
Next quarter it will be the weather once again. Too many tornadoes and it is too hot. Global warming is to blame. the pundits will never admit failure and another recession coming our way. This cannot happen on Obama's watch. Soon, very soon presidential elections will be the problem as people do not go to work because they want to see Hillary!
Hillary and Warren your next elected officials!!
Looks like we've got us a convoy.
Copy back there, rubber duck.