East Coast shipping ports shutting down in a few hours

I think it's a little short-sided to blame them for being pissed off about using AI to take their jobs. Who's next? They can replace just about anybody with AI. I saw robot framers and drywallers FFS..
What do you do with a country that has delegated all its work to artificial intelligence?
 
cek said:
I worked in the container business for 20 years. They are the most childish and entitled group I’ve ever dealt with. West coast will most likely do work “slowdowns” to show solidarity with the east coast. These guys will actually tell us that they are doing it. I had a driver get mouthy with one of the teamsters while putting a container on a chassis so the teamster put the container on backwards and told him to go to the back of the 2 hour line to get it fixed. He told the driver that they run the show and will make life miserable for him if he opens his mouth one more time. It was kinda funny but at the same time they don’t care about the businesses. Just how much they’re gonna get paid and how little they have to work.

We had to pick up 20 containers on an off day. Our customer had to pay for a full crew for the whole day to let them to come in. Took about 45 minutes. Shows that they can work when it suits them.
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Jesus.

Decades ago I was importing engines and such from Japan. I had a container come in, hired a chassis to pick it up...

Driver waited in line, got towards the end of the day. They hooked up my container and the whistle blew. Operator hopped right the fuck out of the crane and left. Couldn't spend the extra 30 seconds to move it over to the truck.

Ended up having to pay the truck again to come out and load.
 
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Rockwood said:
Jesus.

Decades ago I was importing engines and such from Japan. I had a container come in, hired a chassis to pick it up...

Driver waited in line, got towards the end of the day. They hooked up my container and the whistle blew. Operator hopped right the fuck out of the crane and left. Couldn't spend the extra 30 seconds to move it over to the truck.

Ended up having to pay the truck again to come out and load.
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Yep. Happens all the time. They leave 15 minutes early for lunch and come black 15 minutes late so they can have a full lunch break at lunch.
 
LegitDuner said:
I think it's a little short-sided to blame them for being pissed off about using AI to take their jobs. Who's next? They can replace just about anybody with AI. I saw robot framers and drywallers FFS..
What do you do with a country that has delegated all its work to artificial intelligence?
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Im with you on the automation part but rejecting a 50% pay increase shows you that they are all about get everything they can at the expense of others. If this was happening in Seattle/tacoma area before I sold out I would have to park 60+ drivers who all get paid by the load. It’s a killer on families. There are 1000’s of container moves daily at a large port and the majority get paid per load. All home with no income right now. Bad deal for them.
 
Adapt or Die.......simple as that. Name an industry that Hasn't been impacted by AI and Automation? We had clerical help at the company I work for....they are almost all gone now....We had people in the fields, in the mines, in the factories... they are all gone....My job will be gone soon enough.....I can't go on strike for a 50% pay hike and no automation....This is Exactly what is wrong with unions....F everyone else as long as they get theirs. This has Too big an impact on the country as a whole, but we know Biden won't step in. They must be scared Trump is going to win....all or nothing.
 
Been waiting 8 months for a half truck load of marine transmissions. The containers were due in this month. They all land back east. Head to Miramar Florida then ship out to us on the west coast. My gut says this will screw me into next year with engine package sales missing transmissions and no installs unit they arrive. Last thing I want to do is repowers in the spring when my clients want their boats.
 
I'll play devils' advocate here. You are witnessing one of the few and possibly one of the last uses of leverage that laborers have left. The stock market is crazy high no matter where you look. Record profits at many big companies. Eff you money is everywhere but very little makes its way down to the blue collar worker. As our ability to leverage a wage increase is weakened, the middle class will evaporate. I am a warehouseman of 26 years for a large automotive corporation. Ground floor laborer. We are non union and our pay tops the class of warehouse labor in SoCal which means the entire country. We wouldn't have the decent pay we have today if it wasn't for other facilities in the company that were union and the corp. not wanting us to unionize. Because of unions, not only is our pay much higher than it would be without the union threat but those union guys are making a living wage and able to raise families and live a decent life. Without union leverage, labor would be back to a poverty wage. The average SoCal warehouse wage is $25 hourly. I'm paid $37.25. The corporations net profit was 34 billion. If they could make it $35b and bump me down to minimum with no loss of quality, they would do it in a heartbeat and I couldn't blame them. When you see businesses failing because their labor cost is so high, then I'll agree that the labor unions are too greedy but that just isn't happening.
 
Fireballsocal said:
When you see businesses failing because their labor cost is so high, then I'll agree that the labor unions are too greedy but that just isn't happening.
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Don't quote me yet I heard today that they are holding out for 87% and no automation (period) after being offered...wait for it...50%.
Someone also said that not a single port in the U.S. is in the top 50 in the world in terms of efficiency.
I can't even comment beyond that for obvious reasons.
 
It is almost as inefficient as our government.
 
Fireballsocal said:
I'll play devils' advocate here. You are witnessing one of the few and possibly one of the last uses of leverage that laborers have left. The stock market is crazy high no matter where you look. Record profits at many big companies. Eff you money is everywhere but very little makes its way down to the blue collar worker. As our ability to leverage a wage increase is weakened, the middle class will evaporate. I am a warehouseman of 26 years for a large automotive corporation. Ground floor laborer. We are non union and our pay tops the class of warehouse labor in SoCal which means the entire country. We wouldn't have the decent pay we have today if it wasn't for other facilities in the company that were union and the corp. not wanting us to unionize. Because of unions, not only is our pay much higher than it would be without the union threat but those union guys are making a living wage and able to raise families and live a decent life. Without union leverage, labor would be back to a poverty wage. The average SoCal warehouse wage is $25 hourly. I'm paid $37.25. The corporations net profit was 34 billion. If they could make it $35b and bump me down to minimum with no loss of quality, they would do it in a heartbeat and I couldn't blame them. When you see businesses failing because their labor cost is so high, then I'll agree that the labor unions are too greedy but that just isn't happening.
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The general public forgets where their 40 hour work week came from and their wages and benefits are what they are because of the Union guys. Yes, some Unions are .gov funded and some are very greedy, but there are bad apples in every bunch.
 
SxS said:
Don't quote me yet I heard today that they are holding out for 87% and no automation (period) after being offered...wait for it...50%.
Someone also said that not a single port in the U.S. is in the top 50 in the world in terms of efficiency.
I can't even comment beyond that for obvious reasons.
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What were the CEO bonus's of some of the fortune 500 companies that use that port? What is their (Longshoremen) current wage? What has the raise schedule been in the last 5 years? What has the cost of living gone up by? What is the demand for their labor?
 
Fireballsocal said:
What were the CEO bonus's of some of the fortune 500 companies that use that port? What is their (Longshoremen) current wage? What has the raise schedule been in the last 5 years? What has the cost of living gone up by? What is the demand for their labor?
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The base salary is like 80k and the crane guys make close to 300k...They are not starving...The real question becomes....what would YOU pay people to do the the job they do if you were in charge? Any time you artificially increase wages...NOT because it is a highly skilled position with few people qualified to do the job, but because you are a gang and can shut the employer down....you are not working within the system.

The unions like the water wheel, the cotton gin and wagons have outlived their usefulness. I worked retail clerks...I saw the waste and the 20/80 rule is true....so tired of people just skating by....it really is demoralizing.
 
Realbadlarry said:
The base salary is like 80k and the crane guys make close to 300k...They are not starving...The real question becomes....what would YOU pay people to do the the job they do if you were in charge? Any time you artificially increase wages...NOT because it is a highly skilled position with few people qualified to do the job, but because you are a gang and can shut the employer down....you are not working within the system.

The unions like the water wheel, the cotton gin and wagons have outlived their usefulness. I worked retail clerks...I saw the waste and the 20/80 rule is true....so tired of people just skating by....it really is demoralizing.
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If I ran the company, I would pay as little as possible to get the result necessary. That is the job of the CEO and their management levels. I would pay the same for raw material or production supplies. As little as possible to get the result I wanted. And then I would collect my $15,000,000 bonus on the way to my $100,000,000 retirement stock incentive. The unions are making sure the white collars don't get all of those millions. Boo Hoo.
Now I said devils' advocate. The unions aren't the good guys. There are no good guys. This is business and leverage always wins out.
 
I just saw on the news that the Longshoreman strike has been postponed until Jan 15th.
While this is good for the economy and ultimately the consumer, it is suspicious in my mind considering the timing. Who will benefit from this most.....Heels Up!
BTW...research the president of the ILA. The dude makes almost $1m a year and lives a baller life.
Edit to add that the ILA president's son is an executive VP of the union and also makes big $$$.
 
Yep, as soon as Trump takes over they crash the economy...then blame Trump. Don't underestimate the addiction to power these people have. They are thinking YEARS out how to F the american people....It really is time to drain the swamp.
 
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