Hope you’ve got stocked up: At midnight, the longshoremen of the East Coast and Gulf formally went on strike. From Maine to Texas, our ports are about to cope with some wild backlogs.
The union that represents these dockworkers, the Worldwide Longshoremen’s Affiliation, is demanding a 77 % enhance in pay over the following six years—up from their current rate of $39 per hour—and assurances that bosses will not search to automate their jobs away. (Provided that their compatriots on the West Coast secured a 32 % pay increase final 12 months, it is potential they will accept a good bit lower than 77 %.)
Union boss Harold Daggett (who makes $710,909 annually in total compensation, in case you had been curious) mentioned the quiet half out loud: “Right now’s world…[corporate bosses] they don’t seem to be making tens of millions no extra, they’re making billions, they usually’re spending it as quick as they make it. I desire a piece of that for my males. As a result of once they made their most cash was throughout COVID, when my males needed to go to work on these piers each single day, when everyone stayed residence and went to work. They died on the market with the virus, all of us obtained sick with the virus, we stored ’em going.… I wish to be compensated for that. I am not asking for the world…we now have to struggle for what we rightfully deserve.”
“These folks as we speak do not know what a strike is,” continued Daggett, getting a bit darker, presaging the chaos.
“When my males hit the streets from Maine to Texas, each single port locked down. what is going on to occur? I will let you know. First week, be all around the information each evening, growth, growth, second week. Guys who promote vehicles cannot promote vehicles, as a result of the vehicles ain’t coming in off the ships. They get laid off. Third week, mall begins closing down. They cannot get the products from China. They cannot promote garments. They cannot do that. Every part in america comes on a ship. They exit of enterprise. Development staff get laid off as a result of the supplies aren’t coming in. The metal’s not coming in. The lumber’s not coming in. They lose their job. Everyone’s hating the longshoremen now as a result of now they notice how necessary our jobs are.…I’ll cripple you, and you don’t have any concept what which means.”
(Language, sir!)
The present ILA contract specifies pay of $39 per hour for longshoremen (so roughly $80,000 yearly), with beginning salaries a bit decrease. This does not account for additional time, which is beneficiant. For longshoremen who log aggressive additional time, we’re speaking $200,000 yearly. That is a number of the highest pay obtainable for a job that doesn’t require a school diploma.
But Daggett is threatening to carry total sectors of the economic system hostage in order that his guys can get a increase—and dictate to their bosses that they shan’t get replaced by know-how that might in some instances make backbreaking work loads much less terrible and harmful whereas, sure, most likely eliminating some variety of jobs.
Negotiations have reportedly stalled since June.
We’re about to face a brand new spherical of COVID-esque shortages and skyrocketing costs as a result of *this* deal is not ok for the individuals who take containers off of ships and put them into vehicles https://t.co/QlfuvQeLpz pic.twitter.com/86CdUCQ7NM
— Mason (@webdevMason) October 1, 2024
Good luck to these in western North Carolina and jap Tennessee who will now get to work on rebuilding their communities, devastated by Hurricane Helene, with out with the ability to use…any imports (like lumber). Good luck to those that want imported remedy. Good luck to those that had been already scuffling with excessive meals costs; they only obtained loads worse.
Brandon will not save us: Technically talking, President Joe Biden has the ability to cease the strike through the Taft-Hartley Act if he makes an attempt to assert that the strike would threaten nationwide safety or security, which might then kick off an 80-day cooling off interval. Biden has said he doesn’t imagine in Taft-Hartley, and can thus not be doing so.
It is all form of loopy, and threatens to upend the economic system upfront of the election subsequent month. Probably essentially the most weird a part of that is that the identical union controls all the ports on the East Coast, and within the Nice Lakes area, and within the Gulf, so there is not a readily-available choice to bypass this. If monopolies are so dangerous as a result of they go away shoppers with increased costs and no selection to hunt out rivals, then what precisely do leftists make of this union stunt?
This is the absurd kicker: Daggett and Co. have determined that they’re going to nonetheless work passenger cruises in order “to not inconvenience the tens of hundreds of People who’ve booked journeys upfront.” In any case, he reasons, “many households plan and pay for cruise holidays on passenger ships greater than a 12 months out, and we do not need them to be disillusioned or inconvenienced in any approach.”
sorry however cruises are actually the very first thing i’d select to disrupt if i had been union queen pic.twitter.com/V5ux0hITVD
— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) October 1, 2024
Scenes from New York: Councilman Shaun Abreu is has gotten the rest of city council on board with a rat contraceptives pilot program.
QUICK HITS
- Israeli troops crossed the border into Lebanon for the primary time for the reason that 2006 conflict. Israeli officers say they’re conducting “restricted operations targeted on Hezbollah infrastructure close to the border” between Israel and Lebanon, according to a U.S. State Division spokesman. “Israel has a proper to defend itself in opposition to Hezbollah,” mentioned the spokesman, including “we wish to finally see a diplomatic decision to this battle, one that permits residents on either side of the border to return to their houses.”
- There is a vice-presidential debate tonight. what which means: It is time to flow into a petition to my bosses to exempt me from having to look at it, since it could truly kill me.
- “College students throughout New York Metropolis are ready as much as an hour for college buses as a driver scarcity and battle over a contract hamstring town’s capacity to discover a answer,” reports The New York Instances.
- Charges of breast most cancers are climbing, with sharpest will increase occurring amongst girls of their twenties.
- TDS is next-level:
i am catholic, that is a particularly widespread prayer (little playing cards printed with it scattered about most church buildings). the “satan” and “evil spirits” right here are usually not meant metaphorically, however actually — the invisible brokers of your adversity. it is a request for defense, principally. https://t.co/efVrsiVu0p
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) September 30, 2024
