The Atlantic and Gulf strike halts about 50% of US container trade. This is serious.
Tweet of the Day
“They were offered a 50% pay increase. They were offered tripling the company match on their retirement and an increase in health benefits. They were offered to keep the same language on automation. Can someone tell me why this hasn’t been accepted? Oh yea, he’s Trump’s buddy.”
Link to Above Tweet plus video of the union leader.
Responses
Pay for Longshoremen
White House and Trump Echo Dockworkers in Blaming Shipping Lines
Bloomberg reports White House and Trump Echo Dockworkers in Blaming Shipping Lines
The Biden administration and former President Donald Trump lined up behind the dockworkers who walked out of every major East and Gulf coast port on Tuesday, each accusing the ocean carriers of exploiting workers during the pandemic.
The White House is also calling on the carriers to withdraw any surcharges related to the strike — which halted about 50% of US container trade — and warning them not to exploit any emergencies for profit. The two largest carriers have already announced plans to impose extra fees tied to the work stoppage if it continues more than a few weeks.
President Joe Biden “and Vice President Harris are closely monitoring any attempts by companies to opportunistically raise prices, including ocean shippers or others, during the labor dispute,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said a statement Tuesday.
The International Longshoremen’s Association — the 47,000-member labor organization that represents workers in every major port on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts — went on strike after their contract with the US Maritime Alliance, which represents ocean carriers and terminal operators, expired.
The USMX, as the group is known, maintains that the union hasn’t bargained in good faith since calling off negotiations back in June. Hours before the midnight deadline, and with urging from the White House, the USMX extended an offer that would increase dockworker wages by nearly 50% over the new six-year contract, up from a previous offer of almost 40%.
“Our current offer of a nearly 50% wage increase exceeds every other recent union settlement, while addressing inflation, and recognizing the ILA’s hard work to keep the global economy running,” the USMX said Tuesday.
So far, Biden, who considers himself the most pro-union president in American history, has defied calls from various industry and trade groups to intervene, first to prevent the strike, and now to end it using his authority under the Taft-Hartley Act.
Instead, Biden has echoed Daggett’s position that dockworkers deserve a larger share of profits won by foreign-owned container liners during the trade boom — and supply chain crisis — of the pandemic.
“Now is not the time for ocean carriers to refuse to negotiate a fair wage for these essential workers while raking in record profits,” Biden said, adding his administration was watching for any price gouging activity that benefits the companies — including those on the USMX board.
“American workers should be able to negotiate for better wages, especially since the shipping companies are mostly foreign flag vessels, including the largest consortium One,” Trump said, referring to Ocean Network Express. At an event in Wisconsin later on, the Republican nominee said the dockworkers “also don’t want to see certain new technologies, which in many cases don’t work very well.”
The Harris campaign referred a question about the strike to the White House.
Sickening Vote Pandering
Trump is now acting like a pro-union luddite. There s no better way to describe it when the union does not want more automation and Trump agrees.
He is trying to out-do the most pro-union president in history.
A third of the union members already make $200,000 per year or more with overtime, and now they balk at a 50 percent raise and massive increases in pension funding.
It is guaranteed costs will soar on this contract, no matter the final result.
Estimates for strike related costs are $3 to $5 billion per day for the first week. Things accelerate after that. I recall reading that Anna Wong at Bloomberg estimated the hit to GDP at 0.3 percentage points and I believe that was for a short strike.
I fully support hiring anyone who will cross the picket line to bust the union totally.
Trump vs Frederic Bastiat: Who Is Right About Tariffs?
In case you missed it, please see Trump vs Frederic Bastiat: Who Is Right About Tariffs?
The Republican party has gone apesheet nuts.