1. The terminals at the Port of NY/NJ had tens of thousands of workers years ago. The International Longshoreman's Association (ILA) was one of the most powerful unions in the country at the time. At its peak, the ILA had more than 30,000 workers at the piers in NY/NJ.
2. Starting around the 1970s, the Port began looking to impose layoffs to reduce costs and make NY/NJ more competitive with other East Coast ports that were starting to draw market share down south to Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, etc.
3. After a protracted labor battle the two sides came to an interesting agreement. The ILA agreed to reduce the on-site workforce dramatically, with a plan in place to reduce it even further through attrition. The Port agreed to a small number of actual layoffs, and agreed to keep paying wages to many of the ILA workers who were removed from the on-site workforce but kept on the payroll. These ILA members basically got paid to stay home.
4. The Port actually saved a pile of money almost immediately, even though they were paying thousands of workers not to work. The elimination of on-site staff resulted in a dramatic reduction of theft on the piers that more than offset the wages paid to non-working ILA members.
5. Today there are fewer than 3,000 ILA members left at the Port of NY/NJ. The marine terminals are highly automated, and the biggest problem they now face is getting enough skilled workers to fill some of the positions on the piers.
Go figure. Everything is a racket these days, it seems.
Go figure. Everything is a racket these days, it seems. >>>
thanks for the info. and yes, that for sure.