Posted on 10/11/2024 9:29:17 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
until it doesn’t, which will probably be by next summer at the latest. /hunch
robots don’t strike
The ports need to unionize the Robots and put democrats out of work
I agree.
Thankfully.
Hard to imagine a better example of the dinosaur thinking of unions.
No to Progress!!
Ideally for the Union, the ships should be unloaded by hand, using nets and slings - as they were for hundreds of years before machines were invented.
Why don’t we go back to just using wooden ships and sails while we’re at it.
Then we can create jobs for sail and rigging makers, carpenters to repair ships, and a whole new industry for manufacturing pitch.
All those jobs can be unionized as well and pay 150k a year.
Mobbed up Anthony Scotto was the responsible union boss.
Freight still comes in on the east coast, and the ILA still "organizes" the dock workers, but not in Brooklyn.
I wonder if Oakland will be similarly gentrified?
Yeah well, a lot of folks thought “Never again!” meant never instead of almost never.
Why are they using sea containers and cranes? Think of how many more jobs there would be if everything was unloaded by hand and moved by hand dolly.
Reminds me of the story of the engineer visiting China in the 60s noting that the dam construction would move more quickly if they used dozers instead of straw baskets and shovels. The party official say, but what job would the workers do? The engineer thinks and says replace their shovels with spoons.
Fire all 85,000 of them and hire Mexicans. At least they work.
The unions did not like locked containers. They considered a certain percentage of the cargo falling off the ships into their trunks to be part of their pay.
I don’t know how smart the Mexican government is. But a smart move by them would be to open up their ports to automation-minded investors. Unload there, then move the goods to the United States.
I don’t know if that is even doable. But if the longshoremen keep demanding crazier and crazier things, somebody just might give it a try.
Side point: I live in an old mill town, and worked in a steel mill for awhile. I saw the mill union (USW) demand crazier and crazier things. The union wasn’t the only culprit, to be sure. But now the mills are gone.
There is far too much power in that little group of workers at America’s choke points, take it away from them.
We all depend on a thriving economy. Well, maybe not government entities.
And the economy has to be semi efficient otherwise it will never get off of the ground nor sustain itself once it is moving.
That includes labor type jobs such as dock workers. It would be terrible for everyone if they were still using block and tackle and mules to move items around. Terrible for everyone including the workers.
Foreign owned harbor/dock robots might.
Imagine if buggy whip manufacturers would have been able to shut Henry Ford down...
Or if they’d stuck with man powered spades instead of the steam shovel...
Processing cotton by hand rather than with a gin...
SAME DIFFERENCE HERE...
They work 24/7. They take no lunch hours or breaks. No overtime, holidays, sick days or vacations. No health care plan, workers comp or pensions.
The equipment is currently inches away from being not just automated, but autonomous.
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