Longshoreman strike
- Thread starter Spartans9312
- Start date
Yes, if the policy is Bitcoin or sound money. The problem with the current fiat control system is it's built to continuously grow and increase debt. AI should be incredibly deflationary for most good services as prices drop to the marginal cost of the good or services (side note I think the need for energy is going to increasing drastically as AI develops quickly, but not fast enough). In a lot of cases it would basically be the cost of a line of code.....aka basically zero.
So, people might be losing good paying jobs, but the cost of living is decreasing drastically. Instead we have system that has to continually increase the money supply and debt, which will continue to increase prices as they lose higher paying jobs. People will then vote for more government handouts, which will only make their standing of living worst (unknowingly) as capital flows from private hands to public hands. My fear is AI isn't going to be able to move quick enough to outpace government malfeasance.
Closer than many realize, again I could cut my staff by 1/3 in a year or two. Knowing this I just wonder why there seems to be a strong desire to make sure immigration is healthy in America if the trend human held positions/jobs looks to be on the decline.
Last edited:
You were a Dungeon Master? What type of campaigns did you like to run?
@Marvin the Martian we're nearing critical mass here for the WCD&D Club!
Hard to get the barge from Oakland to Omaha for that short truck trip to the warehouse.
European countries are smaller than many of our states and have navigable waterways that make that system work.
Worrying about tomorrow's problems today has hardly been our government's strong suit. They rarely even solve yesterday's problems tomorrow. Usually, the only time I see government move with purpose is towards my wallet and away from responsibility.
Last edited:
That's it, let's get it started. We know Mc is in.
I haven't played D20 games since the 80's. Consoles and the PC replaced those in scratching my RPG itch.
They don’t have the guts to use Taft-Hartley a month before the election. Daggett knows it
The American farmer hit hard by port strike - Washington Examiner
The longshoremen's strike may cause major disruptions for the American food supply chain.
www.washingtonexaminer.com
“Farmers have already been struggling with declining profitability because of how much the cost of running a farm has grown in the past few years while commodity profits have dropped. This is just one more blow for farmers that will cause a ripple…”
Just saying, the President would have leverage. Get back to work and have time to figure out how to retrain your members or I help accelerate the modernization of our ports to protect the country from union economic terrorism in the future.
I know we have the tech, it is about making it more ubiquitous. Like I said above, that dude thinks he holds all the cards. I would bury him.
I would call his bluff…agree to all his proposals. My stipulation is I would put in the contract a fine for when a ship did not get loaded on time and wasn’t able to leave port on time.
The thing is some of those jobs are pretty good pay jobs. I agree with the point, but it is hard to convince someone over 45 that it is time to learn a completely new job, the job will pay well, and it will be there after you learn it. There is a decent chance any other job will be the next to go in 5 years.
Anyone that's had a union job knows that the goal is to make the job last as long as possible while minimizing physical exertion.
That guy is amazing. I’m not gonna comment on the merits, but his thorough advocacy for his union’s position without notes, without a teleprompter and in spontaneous answers to interview questions is impressive. Contrast that with the always scripted, prepared remarks given by the president and vice president of the United States regarding the most important issues of the day.
Give the President some more perks like this guy and the talent goes up 😉
Are you surprised?
He’s an old school Democrat….yet we keep hearing the party has moved drastically to the right
They probably had the same mob handler back in the day.
I'll bet those longshoreman even have the seabed plots numbered. If your boss asks you to stash something from the trunk of a limo, and quick, best to be prepared.
Makes you wonder why Biden isn’t piling the lever sitting right in front of his face.
To which again I ask: why is Biden sticking his neck out for these people?
The ILU chief thug is supporting Trump, says Trump pledged to oppose port automation, these folks here have almost certainly been coached to withhold any public expression of support for Harris, the strike is curiously timed during the homestretch of the election cycle....oh, and the strike is going to cause immense economic disruption that we'll start seeing signs of in the coming days....
The leverage the ILU has comes from this being done before the election. I realize that the thug promised that anybody sent back to work by Taft-Hartley would be slow-walking their work. That's not unusual or unexpected. But management needs to be all over them and not be afraid to terminate people for deliberately impeding production.
And, yet, Biden is saying he's not going to institute the pause because he doesn't "believe in Taft-Hartley." Belief has nothing to do with it. It's federal law -- and he's sworn an oath to faithfully execute those laws.
It is within his discretion not to do this, yes. But....why would he?
My guess:
1. Politics. Someone else posted a link with Harris's polling numbers with union voters being at the lowest for D candidate since '84 (but it's not zero and she still holds a lead). A lot of those voters, I'm guessing, the Ds think are in battle ground states. Why do you think the longshoremen are doing this now? Because they know they have that kind of leverage (it's not a certainty how it will play out, obviously).
2. Timing. It's early; he and his admin might be hoping the two sides can work it out on their own.
3. Principle. Biden has always said he's for the working man and supports unions. He's backing that up here. (Yes he's a politician, yes he's lied in the past and will still do so. Doesn't mean he doesn't believe in things). When he says he doesn't "believe in Taft-Hartley," maybe the part he's talking about is using government force to make union members go to work. Some conservative posters were throwing around the term "forced servitude" in relation to doctors in a national healthcare system. For some, including Biden, maybe they don't like that idea here, which is much closer to "forced servitude" than the latter example.
Politics. A lot of people assume that union members truly have solidarity with one another. I mean in the sense of always favoring things other unions do. I understand why people think this -- because the organizations usually make a concerted effort to present a united front publicly. But it isn't actually the case. And the ILU thug even noted this in that interview -- when he talked about people in other sectors getting laid off because of supply-chain disruption and hating the Longshoremen. He was talking (at least in part) about other unions.
In my experience (and I have a pretty good amount of it in this area) union members are no different than anybody else. They are, first and foremost, concerned about their own well-being. They'll support other unions, but only to the extent it doesn't cost them anything to do so.
Timing If so, they're naive. As you rightly point out, the timing of this is not an accident. The shippers pretty obviously can't agree to swear off automation -- not in contractual sense, anyway. As such, the ILU seems far more determined to cause problems than to reach a settlement. They know they're demanding terms that cannot plausibly be met.
If Biden lets this continue to play out, he (and, by extension, Harris) will start getting the blame for not intervening in it. And I think he should be more worried about the votes at risk there than the votes at risk by using the tool at his disposal.
Principle OK, maybe. But I generally take it as a given that nobody who has been successful in politics does much of anything out of principle. And, frankly, that may apply more to Biden than most.
And this is where the media is going to kick in and probably decide the fate of this. Is mainstream media going to be pro-union or pro-realism which will frame public opinion? The fact that the union turned down a 50% raise when so many Americans are struggling right now is a bad look and would be a significant story option if the media wanted to push it.
I mean, think about it. What is the highest percentage raise you've ever gotten in your life? I had one year where I got a 20% raise, but went from hourly to salary, so I lost all my overtime pay (ended up being almost a wash). Are people going to be sympathetic to a group that turned down that much?
They might have some sympathy briefly -- until the reality of it starts affecting their daily lives. And I expect that its effects will start becoming evident within the next week or so.
But, again, I don't know that public opinion is going to have much impact here. The money they're asking for, turning down, would accept, etc. just isn't the thrust. And the fact they turned down a 50% raise should make that unmistakably clear. The thrust is the automation -- and Trump reportedly told Daggett that he would support efforts to prevent it. As such, I think what's going on is more about an attempt to wound Harris (and thus help Trump) than it is about how much of a raise they get.
I know. But I don't think that date is a coincidence. I don't think it was set, when it was set, and they just said "Look at that, it just so happens to coincide with the last month of a presidential election. Maybe we can use that as political leverage!"
FWIW, most contracts in the building trades expire in the spring.
Similar threads
