[perplexed element]

That does seem a bit odd... I would like to know also.

[ambrose]

Part of it is a lazy and disorganized management which would rather pass on to the consumers the cost of these workers rather than suck it up and do the right thing... and bust this union.

[Flyer]

Why exactly are they striking?

Someone will be here soon to tell you they weren't striking. Technicaly true. What they were doing is showing up and not working - and still getting paid.

---

[airedale]

The strike issue has to do with future jobs. There is agreement pretty much on everything else. Automation is coming to the docks. The union wants all the new jobs (not new slots for old jobs but totally new job functions) to be covered by the union agreement regardless of what it is. Management on the other hand wants as few of them as possible to be union. Their position is that all new jobs that are created that fit within the union agreement will be union jobs. Those that don't won't. Most of the new jobs that will be created will be outside the current labor agreement. The existing jobs will be partially phased out as technology is added.

I mentioned earlier that there was agreement on pretty much everything else. One of the things that has already been agreed to is that existing jobs will be maintained until the person filling it leaves or retires. So new technology won’t affect existing workers by putting them out of a job. However, the union thinks (probably correctly) that management will set up the new jobs created by technology in such a way that it won’t fit under the union contract. It’s an existence issue for the union and major money for both sides over a very long time (length of next labor agreement + any extensions that are agreed to with the same definition of what positions are covered.)

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

From the docks, mob members can smuggle guns, drugs, pirated patents/copywrited materials. The mob, thus, treats this union very well.

A side note, Rush was right IMHO. The closing of the docks was to sabotage the economy. The union was offered everything it wanted expect for bar codes. They were offered evry benefit and personal gain they asked for. That is why the dock workers demanded that they be allowed to work. Their leadership was acting goofy. Is there anyone on this forum who doesn't think that is fishy? I'd like to hear why.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

At a Democratic fundraiser, a doctor is chatting with a dock worker.

Doctor: "With overtime you make $120,000?! That's more than I make!"
Dockworker: "I know. I used to be a doctor."

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

its just part of gray davis's new living wage law

[SamAdams76]

They want cradle-to-grave socialism. Even though their jobs are being automated, they want to continue wandering around the docks with a clipboard for the rest of their lives. They do not want to have to learn new "skillz" like the rest of us.

[babble-on]

With overtime most of them are making $250k or more. Or so I am told.

[Non-Sequitur]

Does anyone else find that a little strange? Why exactly are they striking?

Why were the baseball players ready to strike?

Actually, it isn't money so much as job security. There is technology avilable that would allow ports to unload ships in a fraction of the time, with a lot smaller work crew. The Unions don't like it.

[jjm2111]

I've worked on cargo ships once upon a time. The ILWA has three classes (if memory serves me). The top guys do make VERY good money. The $160,000 is a bit stretched though.

The third tier guys are very lazy. The crane operators are terrible. (In one three day period, the crane operator took out a cluster light part of the ship's rail, and a hatch cover). The crane operators would also hit the "Emergency Stop" button on the crane panel, so I would have to climb to the top of the crane and reset it.

ILWA longshoreman would actually bring pillows and blankets on the ship. I would find them wandering around the house, etc. I'd have wake them up.

[stuartcr]

Basically, they are doing what they are told to do.

[Mr_Mayor]

I just love this. All the people here are just jealous of some working slobs finally making a much as the so called white collared professionals. I think you guys/gals are just plain jealous. If the white collar world organized maybe ya'll could make as much or even more than the dock workers. Me. I'm in a union and as long as the owners will keep paying i'll keep earning it too!

[ladyinred]

I don't know if this has anything to do with it or not, but the cost of living in the southern Cal area is very high, therefore the wages there reflect that in all areas with the exception of those who are on minimum wage.

[Lazamataz]

Are there any docks in the Midwest? I could use that kind of money!!!

[Dionysius]

I wonder how many "no show" and "no work" jobs are allocated to LCN.

[dfwgator]

Methinks the dock workers are going to price themselves out of a job. Companies have discovered they can ship cheaper to ports in Mexico, then simply truck the goods over the border.

[YoungKentuckyConservative]

Marxism! AKA, the LABOR Party. AKA, the UNION Party. AKA, the Communists. People, everything that is wrong can practically be explained by the Communist Manifesto. Understand thy enemy and you'll understand nearly everything the media wants you to swallow. After all, the media is the apex of Marxism.

[hosepipe]

What happening with the lawn-shoremen you ask!;

Well their just luddites.... protecting their graft, ugh!.. jobs... democrats mostly, bleeding and rapeing the shippers who in turn pass it on to us. Mostly like the DNC, lawyers, Doctors, and Accountants do.. Sometimes an Accountant is a lawyer also... you need to really watch out for those guys.

Although some think their Marxists, I don't, they really are just mobsters with a protection racket, you know like the DNC. Socialism is of course just a proctection racket, gone National. Kinda silly looting just one city when you could loot a nation, know what I mean. The lawn-shoremen offer protection by stealing less from the containers(they unload) to the shippers that pay more under the table.

What really pissed them off was the shippers wanted bar-code the containers so they keep track of what was stolen, an invertory kind of thing. They'll just kill a coupla shippers wives and/or children and everything will be back in order pretty soon. Have no fear...

** pray for canada...

[nutmeg]

bump