US US port strike by 45,000 dockworkers is all but certain to begin at midnight - A Rather Unique October Surprise

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FILE - Shipping containers are stacked in the Port of New York and New Jersey in Elizabeth, N.J., May 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

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FILE - In this photo provided by the Georgia Ports Authority, Griff Lynch, President and CEO of the Georgia Ports Authority, provides an update on the Port of Savannah’s progress and future trajectory to 1,200 leaders from the maritime, supply chain, business and political sectors Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, during the annual State of the Port event in Savannah, Ga. (Stephen B. Morton/Georgia Ports Authority via AP, File)

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FILE - Containers are moved at the Port of New York and New Jersey in Elizabeth, N.J., on June 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Updated 12:13 PM GMT-5, September 30, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) — The union representing U.S. dockworkers signaled that 45,000 members will walk off the job at midnight, kicking off a massive strike likely to shut down ports across the East and Gulf coasts.
The coming work stoppage threatens to significantly snarl the nation’s supply chain, potentially leading to higher prices and delays for households and businesses if it drags on for weeks. That’s because the strike by members of the International Longshoremen’s Association could cause 36 ports — which handle roughly half of the goods shipped into and out of the U.S. — to shutter operations.
ILA confirmed over the weekend that its members would hit the picket lines at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday. In a Monday update, the union continued to blame the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents the ports, for continuing to “to block the path” towards an agreement before the contract deadline.

“The Ocean Carriers represented by USMX want to enjoy rich billion-dollar profits that they are making in 2024, while they offer ILA Longshore Workers an unacceptable wage package that we reject,” ILA said in a prepared statement. “ILA longshore workers deserve to be compensated for the important work they do keeping American commerce moving and growing.”

ILA also accused the shippers of “killing their customers” with sizeable price increases for full containers over recent weeks. The union said that this will result increased costs for American consumers.

The Associated Press reached out to a USMX spokesperson for comment.
If drawn out, the strike would led would force businesses to pay shippers for delays and cause some goods to arrive late for peak holiday shopping season — potentially impacting delivery of anything from toys or artificial Christmas trees, to cars, coffee and vegetables. Americans could also face higher prices as retailers feel the supply squeeze.

ILA members are demanding higher wages and a total ban on the automation of cranes, gates and container-moving trucks used in the loading or unloading of freight.
The coming strike by the ILA workers will be the first by the union since 1977.
If a strike were deemed a danger to U.S. economic health, President Joe Biden could, under the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, seek a court order for an 80-day cooling-off period. This would suspend the strike.
All eyes are on what, if any, action the adminstration might take — particularly just weeks ahead of a tight presidential election. But Biden has signaled that he will not exercise this power.
During an exchange with reporters on Sunday, Biden said “no” when asked if he planned to intervene in the potential work stoppage.

“Because it’s collective bargaining, I don’t believe in Taft-Hartley,” Biden said referring to a 1947 law that allows the president to intervene in labor disputes that threaten the nation’s health or safety.

 

[emosimp7]

They're turning down an over 50% pay raise to not bring the ports up to date and be more efficient; that's not being cutdown and underpaid, it's holding everyone hostage to keep your protection racket going. You can't sell me on "We're so damn fucking important to the USA" while also saying "Fuck you, we ain't gonna modernize." It's not about the paycheck, it's about not modernizing; so they're gonna hold the entire east coast ports hostage, because you want to be sure you can get all your corrupt buddies well paying jobs? Cool, bust the fucking union, impound the fag's yacht, and come up with a plan to modernize the ports.

Fuck your ports and fuck your modernizing. It always becomes an excuse to fire people and then what do you get? Bitch work at Walmart and welfare.

 

[oh no its pipkun]

The unions response to this was to sick the union legal firm on the company to the extent that the company just dropped the issue despite overwhelming evidence.

how does this work in a criminal matter? union law firm sued the prosecutor?

 

[TheRedChair]

This all comes down to Automation. Regardless of what the bullshit is being spouting about, their version of "Modernization through Automation" is the removal of as many workers as possible.
That is the core of the problem.

 

[WelperHelper99]

They're turning down an over 50% pay raise to not bring the ports up to date and be more efficient; that's not being cutdown and underpaid, it's holding everyone hostage to keep your protection racket going. You can't sell me on "We're so damn fucking important to the USA" while also saying "Fuck you, we ain't gonna modernize." It's not about the paycheck, it's about not modernizing; so they're gonna hold the entire east coast ports hostage, because you want to be sure you can get all your corrupt buddies well paying jobs? Cool, bust the fucking union, impound the fag's yacht, and come up with a plan to modernize the ports.

A point I don't see is the jobs automation can bring. When you add machines, you bring in their problems. Someone has to maintain them. Someone has to watch them to make sure they don't make a critical fuck up. Automation streamlines things, it does not "delete" people entirely. Someone has to still grease the cogs. What I see is a fear of change. And a fear of losing the good deal that got that union leader his yacht.

 

[LaxerBRO]

A point I don't see is the jobs automation can bring. When you add machines, you bring in their problems. Someone has to maintain them. Someone has to watch them to make sure they don't make a critical fuck up. Automation streamlines things, it does not "delete" people entirely. Someone has to still grease the cogs. What I see is a fear of change. And a fear of losing the good deal that got that union leader his yacht.

The issue is that the old guard union members are in there late 40s to 50s and don't want to take the time to learn new things. While some of our parents are tech savvy, imagine teaching them higher level technical skills. These people can't learn these new skills as their brains are too baked into old models of thinking.

Automation will significantly impact the number of persons needed to be at the ports as some jobs could be done remotely. Thus the only jobs will be for techs, mechanics, and a handful of longshoremen needed to load non-standard cargo.

 

[WelperHelper99]

The issue is that the old guard union members are in there late 40s to 50s and don't want to take the time to learn new things. While some of our parents are tech savvy, imagine teaching them higher level technical skills. These people can't learn these new skills as their brains are too baked into old models of thinking.

Automation will significantly impact the number of persons needed to be at the ports as some jobs could be done remotely. Thus the only jobs will be for techs, mechanics, and a handful of longshoremen needed to load non-standard cargo.

You underestimate what a old dog can learn. You are calling them idiots. And I think you overestimate the level of automation that would actually happen. It came for the welders once. We survived. Thrived even. We learned the tech and mastered it. You can't stay stuck in the past forever or else you will be left behind by the rest of the world.

 

[Kheapathic]

Fuck your ports and fuck your modernizing. It always becomes an excuse to fire people and then what do you get? Bitch work at Walmart and welfare.

Sure, people's jobs; so what are we supposed to do then, hiring freeze and wait for all the old-timers to retire or die off? How long are we supposed to hold off on modernization and being sub-optimal. Do you walk to work or take the horse and buggy?

 

[Marvin]

First Blood drawn at Baltimore, Longshoremen vs. Garbage Man:

That's fucked. If you're gonna beat up on scabs, I think you're an entitled faggot, but even so, at least vet that they're actually a scab to begin with.

Sorta related (but not really) but this stuff reminds me of that massive coal dust explosion a few years ago.

I heard the explosion and I don't live anywhere near Curtis Bay. A buddy of mine lives further down there and he said it rattled his windows.

I wonder if this union represents the workers at the CSX coal processing station too.

 

[Nachos Bell Grande]

Got to love America.
Everyone pretends to like unions until they actually do what they're supposed to.

Hey now, on the whole you're right, but I've consistently disliked unions for like 10 years now, so I'm no bandwagoner lol.

Could just be my bad experiences speaking, but Unions are just another gang you have to suck up to, they say they protect you from the management, but I've seen more personal damage done by unions then the scary management they pretend to shield the workers from. I'll admit a number of things they argue for are good on paper, but almost always seem to enforce the opposite when put into practice; then when you get pissed over it, they tell you to shut up and be grateful they're looking out for you.

And this is mainly the reason. Every union boss I've ever seen just seems like a con artist and union jobs seem either cushy or annoying as hell. I get what they're intended to do, but to me they do very little for barely any gain and are basically riding the highs of the major wins unions had a century ago.

All the strikes I've paid attention to in my life have basically been big nothing burgers that end with minor adjustments being made to placate the wagies and then everyone celebrates like they won a war, when they really just went broke for a few months and then got back to work.

I fully admit I'm not that knowledgeable on union/striking history and the strikes I referenced were never this big, so who knows? From the outside looking in though it just seems two big groups of assholes fighting while the rest of us suffer.

Then considering the benefits and pay they already have, trying to convince a modern, brainwashed, entirely selfish and retarded Amerimutt population that is drowning in debt, and probably doesn't have benefits at all, that you cutting off their supplies and making things even more expensive is a good thing seems like a tall order.

 

[LeChampion1992]

Does your average everyday American give a flying fuck about dockworkers strikes? True, no one wants their grocery store cleaned out or whatever scare story. I get it...

But we all know dockworkers are massively overpaid compared to all other bluecolor workers throughout the country. They have one of the cushiest union packages left in modern America. How many hardworking truck drivers have gone broke across the country while the dockworkers complained about their coffee or whatever?

I'm far more worried about small town factory workers, truck drivers, licensed and qualified electrical or HVAC workers crushed by immigration.

An true and absolute internet shutdown for a few months would be so goddamn hilarious it would be worth sitting at home eating old bags of rice.

Yeah the longshoremen used to be a back breaking job and people used to routinely steal shit from the crates in the old days. Times changed and containerization + less need for human labor meant you need skilled people to move the cranes. You are dealing with cranes designed to deal with tons of cargo and you have to load and unload in almost all weather conditions.
Those guys deserve to get paid big bucks because they're operating highly dangerous and expensive equipment.
You basically replaced what needed strong men with string backs in the 1940s with people who can operate heavy machinery for long periods of the day.
Plus a lot of the dockworkers deal with more Hazmats then truckers do as well. I'm not shitting on truckers we need em too but if we get rid of our longshoremen we're also fucked.

 

[JackoVerde]

Got to love America.
Everyone pretends to like unions until they actually do what they're supposed to.

The longer this goes on, the worse democrats do in the election
i say I’m all for the unions
biden stops the strike, he makes a giant anti union move and kamala Gets heat for it.
biden doesn’t stop It, Kamala gets heat for it due to shortages.
i say have this strike last until right after the election.

 

[LeChampion1992]

The longer this goes on, the worse democrats do in the election
i say I’m all for the unions
biden stops the strike, he makes a giant anti union move and kamala Gets heat for it.
biden doesn’t stop It, Kamala gets heat for it due to shortages.
i say have this strike last until right after the election.

In some ways I feel like some in the elite or powers that be want Trump to win and stage an amazing comeback and all these things are happening.
Another part of me feels like we won't be able to handle what happens next.

 

[LurkTrawl]

Another part of me feels like we won't be able to handle what happens next.

The question mark is the spookiest punctuation.

 

[pro drivor]

Fuck your ports and fuck your modernizing. It always becomes an excuse to fire people and then what do you get? Bitch work at Walmart and welfare.

the automation never actually gets used for modernization or making worker's lives easier or any of that, they just use it to replace the workers instead to make more profit

 

[Super-Chevy454]

In some ways I feel like some in the elite or powers that be want Trump to win and stage an amazing comeback and all these things are happening.
Another part of me feels like we won't be able to handle what happens next.

That or they want to throw lot of hot potatoes to Trump and see how he'll handle this hoping then he'll fail.

 

[GamerGateSurvivor]

In some ways I feel like some in the elite or powers that be want Trump to win and stage an amazing comeback and all these things are happening.
Another part of me feels like we won't be able to handle what happens next.

The elites hate Trump. The problem is, they don't have anyone who can step in and mediate between the longshoremen and their employers. Biden's pretty much checked out of the presidency and Kamala would set up a photo op where she pretends to talk on the phone with the parties involved. They can't bring in anyone else because it would make the two aforementioned parties look like the useless faggots they are. The best anyone can hope for is Trump stepping in to hammer out a deal.

 

[emosimp7]

Sure, people's jobs; so what are we supposed to do then, hiring freeze and wait for all the old-timers to retire or die off? How long are we supposed to hold off on modernization and being sub-optimal. Do you walk to work or take the horse and buggy?

Well, what are they supposed to do? Advocate to lose their own jobs where they work 12 hour days? Should tech workers cheer for H1Bs and AI to take their lower tier jobs? Should the agriculture sector and Amazon workers be happy when they get pushed out by Indians and Haitians? Why should people be happy to be fired for the sake of "line goes up"?

the automation never actually gets used for modernization or making worker's lives easier or any of that, they just use it to replace the workers instead to make more profit

That's unironically what would probably happen. The moment Americans became aware that there were wage workers living comfortable lives with sinecures and didn't have degrees, they got pissed and tried to advocate for their replacement.

 

[1Tonka_Truck]

Except they can't stop automation of the ports. The reality also is, they can't fully automate the ports.

They don't need to automate everything. 50% of longshoremen at any container port spend all day moving container chassis around with terminal tractors. That's a low skill job that very easy to replace with automated container movers. This would also do the thing the ILA leadership truly fears, cut membership drastically.

 

[Toji Suzuhara]

This would also do the thing the ILA leadership truly fears, cut membership drastically.

That's the key of it all, really. The only reason as to why a union has any actual strenght is due to its size relative to the non-unionized workers of its field, and the ILA ports, being some of the largest and most important ones of the East and Gulf coasts, will surely be among the first ones to be automated in the case that there's no pushback to the plans that the ports have. Were the union to lose that many members in a rather short time period, both its credibility and its capability to enforce their demands would crater, sending them into a death spiral. The more cynical of course can point out that with fewer workers there's fewer union dues being collected, which is a direct incentive for the union leadership to act in a proactive manner in regards to automation