9 Comments

Spot on. These guys are already into six figure salaries. This is extortion.

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I'm curious to see how efficient the East Asian ports operate? I have nothing to compare what they are up against. I suspect those ports are WAY more autonomous. The 77% salary increase demand seem very out of line and simply invite more inflation. I hope they come to reasonable terms soon.

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The ILWU (US West Coast Longshore Union) negotiated a new deal about two years ago without a strike. They too opposed a loss of jobs to automation. Today, workers who used to physically operate equipment to move containers on/off dock now sit in air conditioned booths, monitoring automated equipment doing the same work. They're definitely safer in the booth, and they lost no jobs. Additional capacity and efficiency can be added without loss of job count going forward.

Loosening the historical grip the Longshore unions have had on our ports can only be done incrementally at best. Let's hope the ILA and USMX (US terminal operators, and the ocean carriers-all foreign-owned) can come to similar terms and get back to work. Our ports are woefully inefficient compared to Asia/Europe ports, and we should strive to be the best, not the haggard in the global flow of goods.

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I believe the purpose of the strike is to help DT

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What am I going to do with 25 of the same book? I don't have that many friends 😆

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You nailed it! Well said.

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I'll say the other thing we're all thinking for you -- declining a 50% wage increase is a bit insane.

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The gears are turning in Elon Musk's head!

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Pomp, love the daily thoughts. But I questioned the bank teller employment stats and right now, bank teller jobs are actually declining and are projected to decline 15% by end of decade. That’s about 53,000 jobs.

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