re: Is the OT with the dock workers or against?

I can understand wanting to bargain for higher wages ,but 77% and cut out any and all automation? Yeah, that is absolutely crazy and completely unreasonable.

quote:

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What are they asking for? I’ve heard they’re wanting something like a 75% pay raise. Is that true?

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77% raise parsed out over the next 6 years (nothing like knowing you're getting a guaranteed 12.8% raise each year, eh?) and an agreement that there will be no further automation in their jobs.

The higher labor costs go, the more cost-effective automation becomes. With this deal, they are wanting to not only frick consumers (because consumers ultimately pay these extra costs), but they want a guarantee they can continue fricking us far into the future.

They aren't dock workers. They're dock strikers. Don't like your job, then get another one that's better. Never understood a union in a free country.

I’m all for employees negotiating better terms for themselves but not for everyone. These unions hold the rest of us hostage. If you excel at your job, then you should make more or be able to leave for the competition. This shite has to stop. I’m sure these guys work hard but they want $69 an hour and no automation. There are very few industries insulated from technological advancement. We’re all at risk to some extent. F these unions.

I was doing some work with a large shipping company several years ago, and spent some time at several ports on the east coast and in Houston. I was amazed at how useless 90% of dock workers are.

Legitimately the crane operators were the only ones who I saw as somewhat valuable. The guys who "oversee" the containers getting loaded onto the trucks are usually chilling in fold out chairs while they collect $75/hr. The guys "organizing" the flow of trucks are just driving in circles and wasting gas around the port listening to sports radio.

As a team, their entire purpose is to move as slowly as possible so that they can go into overtime hours and collect overtime pay for a job they could do in half the time. I witnessed a crane operator pretend to load the same container onto four different trucks because they were on the verge of overtime.

Like all unions, these guys only let their buddies join and reap the benefits. They only reason they're paid handsomely is because every few years one of them gets squished by a container due to a crane operator's negligence.

frick the ILA and I can't wait for them to get replaced by a private VC-backed automation enterprise.

I get asking for a raise. I get trying to get the highest raise possible. I don’t understand how employees can tell a business what type of economic decisions they should make over the next decade though. You are the employee if you wanted to make all the management decisions, you should start your own company and become the employer.

Against. Asking for a 70-75% pay raise is ridiculous, out of touch and greedy.

Unions pervert free markets by providing a means for workers to form a monopoly and blackmail employees/customers for compensation that is a multitude higher than their skills are worth on the open market.

They should be abolished.

I'm fine with union strikes until they prevent other people who want to work from working. That is just unacceptable and every time it happens, the union should end up losing wages and not get any improvements.