Posted on 10/06/2024 6:18:54 PM PDT by Libloather
As East and Gulf Coast ports begin to operate as normal again, one of the country’s top entrepreneurs is weighing in on “the trouble” with union workers’ demands.
“The trouble with East Coast ports is they’re very old, they’re very inefficient,” O’Leary Ventures Chairman and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary said on “Varney & Co.” Friday.
“And when you start to compare them against other international ports like Singapore and the other Asian ports,” he continued, “we’re just not holding much up against them. And that’s very bad for productivity.”
US dockworkers returned to work Friday morning after reaching a tentative agreement with employers on an improved wage offer.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), which represents 45,000 striking workers, said the union and USMX have reached a “tentative agreement on wages and have agreed to extend the Master Contract until January 15, 2025 to return to the bargaining table to negotiate all other outstanding issues.”
FOX Business reported that workers accepted a 62% wage increase, effective immediately.
But the ILA’s tentative deal statement mentioned nothing about protection from technology and automation.
A Tuesday statement from the ILA said that it is “steadfastly against any form of automation – full or semi – that replaces jobs or historical work functions. We will not accept the loss of work and livelihood for our members due to automation.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Elctro-mechanical technicians to troubleshoot and repair the automated equipment.
“the ILA said that it is “steadfastly against any form of automation – full or semi – that replaces jobs or historical work functions. We will not accept the loss of work and livelihood for our members due to automation.””
Good luck with that.
The ILA's mobster president had a fit when EZ-Pass replaced tollbooth workers.
Eff that guy. Seriously.
If Sonny Corleone had an EZ-Pass he might still be alive.
I’m sure it doesn’t hurt wages....of those who remain employed.
Yeah, maybe. But we have reached a point where workers couldn’t care less anymore and just want to stick it to BlackRock et al.
We are coming off two decades of the US government literally paying companies to relocate to China and everywhere else. They are killing coal, and have done massive destruction to pipelines. John Deere is going to Mexico. Hell even Twinkies are made in Mexico now.
And so you get Longshoremen hearing they intend to phase them out and they realize if they are getting shut down in 3 years, might as well make em hurt now.
The port alliance has posted 400 billion in new profits since covid. They never get accused of gouging America.
62% increase eh.....yeah that’ll help with inflation
There are major inefficiencies in workflow. Way too much picking up and putting down, moving it to one place and then another, stacking, unstacking, and restacking. Then on a truck to go to a warehouse to be picked up, put down picked up and put on another truck to leave the port area. Or on a truck to go to a rail yard to be put on a train.
And that doesn’t even account for the ones that go to a holding area for customs (most don’t).
ai -> fewer jobs
If Harris and Waltz are elected inflation will eat thru that 62% in a couple months and by 2028 the U.S. Dollar will be worth less than the Zimbabwe Dollar.
O'leary and his ilk dream of replacing Americans with imported labor and robotic overlords.
Unions are a government-provided protection racket. Implicit threats of violence and explicit threats to the economy are expressions of power that could only exist if the unions (not the companies) “owned” the jobs.
If Trump succeeds in bringing manufacturing back, then the longshoremen thugs will have fewer jobs to protect anyway.
The UAW priced themselves out of the car market, but unions never learn. Once you get on the gravy train, it’s hard to jump off.
I had heard, but admittedly haven’t had a chance to look into it further, that the issue with automation is that our ports are owned/controlled by foreign companies. When/if they automate, we are therefore potentially at the mercy of those foreign interests controlling the ports from another country if we want our ports to operate. At least currently we can hope that American workers would keep our ports open despite what the owners may direct.
The labor union Luddites are against automation for an obvious reason and it’s a very selfish one.
“the ILA said that it is “steadfastly against any form of automation – full or semi – that replaces jobs or historical work functions. We will not accept the loss of work and livelihood for our members due to automation.”
The “bossman” is a dinosaur... IOW, the union is hearkening back to the days of bale hooks and cargo nets... this ain’t “On The Waterfront” anymore...
There’s a lot more coming into those ports than cargo. There’s a lot of money tied up in illegal activities and imports. Of the throughput is not conducted effeciently, some bossman will be fit with a set of cement overshoes before too long. Stay tuned for Hoffa, the sequel.
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