$260K a Year + Benefits?!? You’ve got to be Shi**ing me!

Steam Locomotive Crashes Through Train Station!Back in 2022 I wrote about the Railway Workers Union’s contract demands, where, if they were met, would have a railway worker making on average $160,000 per year in total compensation this year, a salary about $70,000 more than the average US worker. On December 2, 2022 Congress and Joe Biden passed an agreement which met essentially all of the Union’s demands.

How’s that for riding the so-called gravy train?

Well, now it looks like smooth sailing for Unionized dock workers as their ship’s come in (puns intended):



(Can’t see the post? Click here)

As I can’t respond to this post on LinkedIn – I’m not a member of his group – I’ll just have to respond here.

Question: How do you make US Ports the most expensive, least automated, least efficient, most labor-intensive in the entire world?
Answer:   Apparently, it’s as easy as 1-2-3.
1 word: Unions.
2 words: Democrat Party
3 words: Union funded Democrats.

Back in August, 2023, the International Longshore & Warehouse Association (ILWA), ratified a new contract for their workers (PDF)at 29 West Coast ports which retroactively raised their average worker’s salary from $195,000 a year – NOT including overtime & bonuses – and average benefits of $102,000 per year (including health premiums fully paid by employers) to $260,000 over six years, along with increased pension benefits, plus a $70,000,000 bonus for working during the COVID shutdown (or, $3,182 for each of their 22,000 workers). The agreement also placed limits and conditions on the introduction of automation.

Union demands for more (presumably unionized) workers at the docks was not met.

Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) CEO Jim McKenna said the new contract overcame “new competitive challenges” (could this mean “automation”?). A report funded by the ILWU estimated during 2020-2021 automation required 352 fewer jobs at the Long Beach port alone: Based on the Unions old contract that’s the equivalent of $104 Million in Union salary & benefits either saved or avoided through automation, not including any additional savings for automation’s increased efficiency, accuracy, throughput, and uptime.

After reaching the tentative agreement ILWU President Willie Adams – a longtime friend of Joe Biden, and who secured the bankruptcy of the ILWU in 2020 – wrote in an announcement to his membership:

“No more outsourcing, no more hiding, no more ‘catch us if you can’, no more giving our work away to superintendents and non-bargaining unit [i.e.: non-Union] personnel”.

Previously, the ILWA threatened a strike during 2015, requiring the Federal Government to intervene to avoid impacting the 2016 Elections and Holiday Shopping period.

As the popular saying goes “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” Or, in this situation, what’s good for the West coast is good for the East coast: Recently, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMA) reached a similar, tentative, agreement for their 50,000 workers at 36 East Coast ports, promising if a final deal falls through they’ll delay any strike until after the elections in November.

The new agreement’s full details aren’t available as I write this, although they might not be required because, as the NY Times pointed out:

“…at $63 an hour, the wages of East and Gulf Coast longshoremen would slightly exceed those that will be earned by West Coast longshoremen, who belong to a different union, at the end of their contract in 2027.”

That represents a 62% increase in salary, down from the Union’s demand of a 77% salary increase but higher than the USMA offer of 50%.

In addition, although their previous contract placed some limits on automating the ports the ILA has stated they are against any automation that reduces work or threatens jobs: And the current tentative agreement lacks any mention of automation. https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/kevin-oleary-addresses-the-trouble-us-ports-union-automation-concerns

The ILA’s previous Master Contract, ratified in 2018 and expired on Sept. 30, 2024, was deemed “the best ever” by ILA President Harold Daggett. Perhaps their new contract will be described as “the bestest ever”. Until, of course, the contract after that, which will be “even “betterer”.

Getting back to the question I posed at the top, California’s Los Angeles shipping port is the busiest and largest in the USA and the 22nd busiest in the world, and, one of the world’s least efficient: In 2021, Southern California’s L.A. and Long Beach unionized shipping ports ranked 328 of 351 ports analyzed worldwide. (Update: As of 2023 their poor ranking hasn’t changed, with Los Angeles and Long Beach rated 375 and 373 of 405 ports, respectively). Not surprisingly, LA is also one of the top 5 most expensive shipping ports, with the other four also located in the United States.

Cargo Ship sinks at the dock.Don’t anticipate these dubious achievements to improve anytime soon: In addition to unions reluctant to embrace automation, the Harris / Biden $1.2 TRILLION Infrastructure Plan earmarked ZERO funds for the automation of America’s shipping ports (but, $17 Billion to upgrade them to reduce their climate footprint).

And now, thanks to the example set by their Union Brothers and Sister on the West Coast, the East Coast shipping ports and their union employees have the chance to enjoy the same level of low efficiency, high costs, relative lack of automation, and fantastic salaries and benefits …right after their Union management work to get Kamala Harris and fellow Democrats elected.

How will this new contract affect inflation, supply chains, worker productivity, and American competitiveness? Beats the ship out of me, although I’m guessing worse, the same, the same, and worse.

Thanks for Reading! (and, you’ve got to be shipping me! ;-) )

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