The Real Impact of the ILA’s Strike to You & Our Country – Top 3 Takeaways – October 3rd, 2024
- Stop cellular communications, save the landline. That’s what I’ve been thinking as I’ve looked at the many protest signs by the striking Longshoreman across eastern and Gulf ports over the past couple of days. Stop the search engines and bring back the Yellow Pages also came to mind (that one also led to me thinking about Al Gore inventing the internet which also cracked me up). It also crossed my mind that we should put an end to the age of computing and instead go back to the typewriter era. After all, it did really make you focus on getting your spelling and punctuation right...didn’t it? And last but not least, I thought it most appropriate that as a society we say “No” to construction cranes and instead go back to winches and pulleys...That was the way construction was done for thousands of years – how could we go wrong? About now you might be wondering what this has to do with the striking Longshoreman. The answer is just about everything. The Longshoreman striking are in real-time fighting for the end of search engines, computing, the internet and its actual inventors and construction cranes in their own way. There are many nits one can pick with dock workers, who at the low end make $50,000 per year, and at the high end make over $200,000 (over a third of all Longshoremen currently do) with the average compensation coming in at around $100,000 per year demanding a 77% pay raise over those levels over the next seven years. There’s a lot of nits than can be picked with these Longshoreman having rejected a nearly 50% increase in pay, along with a tripling in retirement benefit contributions and improved healthcare benefits. But the biggest nit of all, and one that is far too big of an issue, because of the implications of what it would do to our country’s competitiveness and our future, is summarized on the protest signs thousands have been holding that say...
- Fight automation save jobs. These people are the steam engine operators of our time. Without getting into the weeds about how the union is demanding that they’ll not go back to work unless their employers agree to no technological advances in the workplace, what they’re demanding isn’t just absurd. It’s an economic, and most specifically, national security risk. That’s due to one primary reason. Competitiveness. The United States has the world’s largest economy, right? And we’re naturally the world’s largest importer/exporter of goods, right? Actually no. I mean we were as recently as 2021. But we no longer are. Starting in 2022 China passed the United States in total gross imports/exports. China totaled $6.3 trillion in trade compared to the U.S. checking in at only $5.4 trillion. What changed? Technology and along with it productivity. One thing China, and many foreign countries for that matter, were focused on during COVID was improving processes. That came in the form of improvement in technology for shipping processes that significantly increased the capacity and productivity at ports. On that note, here’s another question for you. Again, this is with the knowledge in hand that the US has the top economy in the world. Where do you think the most productive port in the United States ranks worldwide? We’ve got to at least have one that’s in top 3 right? Well, we don’t. Well surely top ten? Actually no. The most productive port in the U.S. is only 17th worldwide. Of the 16 ports that are more productive than our most productive port, ten are located in China with one each located in Singapore, South Korea, The Netherlands, The United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Belgium. And what is it that all of those ports have in common? Use of automation systems. What's more, the top U.S. Port (#17) is in Los Angeles, the second most productive port (#22) is in Long Beach – they aren’t involved in this strike. The most productive port that is involved in this strike is the New-York-New Jersey Port at #24. Now, if China is lapping U.S. ports in productivity (let alone Malaysia)...
- What’s going to happen to our country’s economic competitiveness going forward if a deal is struck to guarantee there’s no progress? What’s going to happen as our biggest adversary in the world only becomes more efficient and productive at the same time? The automation that’s being fought against by the union has proved to increase productivity by 35%, lower costs by 55% (when means lower costs goods for you) and significantly reduced error rates. That’s what they’re fighting. Ironically, in showing his true colors, ILA President Harold Daggett, he of a yacht and prolific gold chains, recently said as a preemptive strike threat to the port operators “I will cripple you”. I guess he was inspired by Jimmy Hoffa or something. The irony in his statement that’s revealing of his character is that it’s not his strike that will cripple us...it can make things rough for sure in coming weeks as I broke out yesterday, but that’s only temporary. It’s that if his demands are met by the ports, and if they do decide to do the equivalent of staying with the yellow pages, typewriters, and winches and pulleys – there's no doubt that it will have the effect of crippling the United States of America into the future. And not only would we be crippled by the steam engine operators of our time, but we’d also be doing it to the direct benefit of our biggest adversary and the world’s greatest threat to stability. Many people are afraid to sound off on this because they don’t want to sound as though they’re anti-worker or whatever else. This country is far too important for me to care about such things. The fact of the matter is that while technological advancements have always led to more jobs and greater opportunities in the United States of America – not less. This is no different. While these workers are striking, ports should be rapidly moving to implement the technological improvements the union is fighting and that are necessary for the United States to remain competitive.