Posted on 10/02/2024 6:44:56 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
As of today, the International Longshoreman’s Association (“ILA”) is on strike at 45 ports along America’s eastern and southern shores. It is demanding a huge wage increase and the end of automation. Harold Daggett, the ILA’s president, has gone on record saying, “I will cripple” America. Even assuming the normal posturing in these negotiations, that’s a singularly ugly threat. Although Daggett successfully pushed back against DOJ charges that he’s a member of the mob, that has a “mob-like” feel.
The ILA’s demands are simple (emphasis mine):
The union is demanding higher wages and a total ban on the automation at ports regarding cranes, gates and moving containers in the loading and unloading of freight.
According to those who purport to know, the ILA wants to have wages increased by 76% over the next six years. The United States Maritime Alliance (“USMA”) has countered with a 50% wage increase and triple pension contributions, which sounds good.
However, the real issue is that total ban on automation. My bet is that the ban is why the USMA is offering so much. That’s because it’s assuming that ports will have many fewer employees over the next few years thanks to automation.
In that regard, the ILA is the 21st-century Luddite. The Luddites were a 19th-century British movement that fought against industrialization in the textile industry. They knew that coal-powered machines would mean fewer jobs and lower pay for textile workers. They responded to this threat to their livelihoods with violence.
However, there was nothing the Luddites could do to stop this inexorable progress. Admittedly, the British government was not inclined to side with the workers over the manufacturers, but the reality is that technology, whether for good or ill, cannot be stopped. If it makes things happen better and faster for less money,
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Meanwhile, Daggett — has worked at the ILA for 57 years and took the helm as president in 2011 — raked in $728,000 in compensation last year from the ILA.
He collected another $173,000 as president emeritus of a local union branch, according to labor department filings.
He lives in a 7,136 square-foot house valued at $1.7 million on a 10-acre lot in Sparta, New Jersey, according to Zillow and NJ Property Records.
By comparison, his fellow union bosses at the AFL-CIO, Teamsters and autoworkers unions earn less than $300,000 a year, according to a Politico report.
Daggett formerly owned the Obsession – a 76-foot yacht – and his family reportedly saw him zipping around in a Bentley, according to The New York Times.
Good for him
Poor timing. The ILA should have delayed this strike to show their support for the residents in suffering in the path of destruction from Helene.
Wish I had him fighting for my job
Just another reason to promote manufacturing here in the U.S. We should not be held hostage by 1 union like this.
We’re fortunate that there wasn’t a Chamberpot Union...
ILA is the 21st-century Luddite
____________________
Yes, automation can kill jobs. But it makes everybody a lot more productive, and we all get a lot better off.
If the Luddites won, we would be still wearing a couple of cloths, on for church, one for day, living at the verge of starvation, riding horse carriages, etc.
All our wealth is the result of Luddites loses. They cannot be allowed to win this one!
Agreed.
The fact that 1 union has this level of power...is beyond absurd.
What a schmuck.
Reminds me of Nancy Pelosi.
Gangsters.
Maybe today his adversaries will just settle all the family business.
automation = no beaks to wet, right Mr. Soprano?
Well…..what’s the Brandon-Kameltoe administration going to do about it????
Longshoremen priced themselves out of the job market and don't want to be replaced by automation!
The natural state of a free-market economy is deflation from greater technological efficiency, and rising living standards
In most cases, that benefit is stolen by government, via inflation and debasement of printed, fiat money
The liberal media are painting this guy as some huge Trump superfan to make this the bad orange man’s fault.
And while the US commits suicide with ports and electric truck , Mexico is announcing a massive cross country train networks and upgrades to their ports.
It would have been unthinkable for the ILA to threaten to cripple America back in the last century, when it was run by Ted Gleason. Gleason was a patriot who supported the Vietnam War and boycotted Soviet ships.
I have a problem feeling empathy for union members who earn an average salary of around $147,000 who refuse a $5 per hour wage increase for each of the next 5 years. Don’t they know they are pricing themselves out of existence while hurting everyone else in America? Artificially high wages for unskilled labor will lead to automation or finding new ways to do things.
...suffering in the path of destruction from Harris.
Don’t be fooled about the longshoremen’s union. They own all of the work done in our major shipping ports that are failing us now. And they are the major cause.
wy69
Not only that...but the crux of their argument/issue is stupid and indefensible.
They want the US shipping/port industry to stop MODERNIZING.....
They want to stay perpetually in like 1999....and never progress unlike all the other major ports around the world that will....for jobs.
Its like Horse and Buggy Manufactures striking so that everyone stops using the Ford Model T.
The fact that they think this is a defensible and sustainable position shows a level of ignorance that is uncommon...even in union bosses.
I’m not fooled by them. my point was this strike will cause more pain and suffering
BTW, my POS brother-in-law was a longshoreman and had to hear his BS for years
Massive technological advances are the only basis for our life improvements. Not any government action, they can only hinder the progress.
What bother me is that we the progress is being slowed down and redirected by the government regulating.
They force us to bike, take bus or walk.
The direct all “environmental” resources to environment killing “green energy “ projects.
All kind of scares are generated for people not to trust science.
“organics” does not improve anything in food, just goes back to old horse and buggy.
No wonder most “organics” is not organics, they cheat.
Seems like the whole progress is mostly in entertainment (Facebook, computer games) and methods on spying on people.
It is 50 years ago when we left Moon, never come back!
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