Port strike: SoCal loses work as ships shift to Oakland, Mexico

[krazen1211]

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-ports-ship-diversion-20121129,0,1632793.story


The slow season for cargo traffic has already begun at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, but if anyone thought that meant that a clerical workers' strike at the facility would not have much of an impact, they were wrong.

One container ship laden with goods to be imported into the U.S. has already been diverted to Oakland because of the strike, which that has idled 10 of the 14 cargo terminals at the nation's busiest seaport complex, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California.

Berry says the clerical workers have been offered a deal that would be the envy of most Americans: "absolute job security;" a raise that would take average annual pay from $165,000 to $195,000, 11 weeks paid vacation, and a generous pension increase.




These union paperpushers really live in their own world. It's not surprising to see the union busted due to this misbehavior.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Did you get yelled at by that union guy for breaking his window with your baseball again?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Snowstalker, this is one of krazen's broken clock moments in my opinion.  Because ports are chokepoints not easily replaced by other options, they've always been places where unions could be extortionists, and in practice have chosen to be extortionists.  About the only thing krazen gets wrong this time is he thinks the clerical workers union will get busted.  I doubt the longshoremen's union (ILWU since this is the west coast) will standby and let scabs work for the clerical positions.

[Sbane]

Ridiculous. The rest of SoCal should be pissed at them. The port provides a lot of economic activity for the region.

[LastVoter]

Oakland port should strike too for greater effect.

[Sbane]

Oakland port should strike too for greater effect.

Oh great, so they will send more ships to Mexico? Maybe Tacoma? And when the larger panama canal gets built, perhaps Houston. These unions need to get their heads out of the sand. And the rest of the workers in SoCal who are getting screwed over by these longshoreman should revolt against them.

[Napoleon]

I suppose this thread will reveal which forumites actually live in reality.

[freepcrusher]

i'm starting to think krazen should be exiled out of the U.S.

[Simfan34]

Except he's actually right for once.

[dead0man]

I suppose this thread will reveal which forumites actually live in reality.

Indeed it is and hopefully will continue.

[LastVoter]

Oakland port should strike too for greater effect.

Oh great, so they will send more ships to Mexico? Maybe Tacoma? And when the larger panama canal gets built, perhaps Houston. These unions need to get their heads out of the sand. And the rest of the workers in SoCal who are getting screwed over by these longshoreman should revolt against them.

Those workers can strike too. The point is, a general strike is necessary so that capitalist class stops ignoring the working class's demands.

[LastVoter]

I suppose this thread will reveal which forumites actually live in reality are scabs.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

Krazen is *gags* right.

[Sbane]

Oakland port should strike too for greater effect.

Oh great, so they will send more ships to Mexico? Maybe Tacoma? And when the larger panama canal gets built, perhaps Houston. These unions need to get their heads out of the sand. And the rest of the workers in SoCal who are getting screwed over by these longshoreman should revolt against them.

Those workers can strike too. The point is, a general strike is necessary so that capitalist class stops ignoring the working class's demands.

The working class's demands to get 150k a year?

[LastVoter]

Oakland port should strike too for greater effect.

Oh great, so they will send more ships to Mexico? Maybe Tacoma? And when the larger panama canal gets built, perhaps Houston. These unions need to get their heads out of the sand. And the rest of the workers in SoCal who are getting screwed over by these longshoreman should revolt against them.

Those workers can strike too. The point is, a general strike is necessary so that capitalist class stops ignoring the working class's demands.

The working class's demands to get 150k a year?

I believe they would be getting ~~100k a year if wages kept up with productivity growth.

[dead0man]

and as the OP said, they are CURRENTLY getting paid on average $165k/year.  Doing a full west coast strike to make sure a guy making a $165k can get a $30k raise certainly isn't helping the working class.  But as we all know, must UNION STRONG! people don't really care about the working class.

[RI]

If they get rerouted to Tacoma, I'm all for this strike. But seriously, this is a pretty obvious outcome. A general strike is ridiculous and not happening, and would only hurt the American economy anyway.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If they get rerouted to Tacoma, I'm all for this strike. But seriously, this is a pretty obvious outcome. A general strike is ridiculous and not happening, and would only hurt the American economy anyway.

The strike has been tentatively settled so the port was open for business today.

[LastVoter]

If they get rerouted to Tacoma, I'm all for this strike. But seriously, this is a pretty obvious outcome. A general strike is ridiculous and not happening, and would only hurt the American economy anyway.

Hurting the American economy would be good for the long term welfare of it's working class.

[dead0man]

If only I was the kind of asshole that put posts in one of those "lol look at what stupid thing this political enemy of mine said" threads....

[Sbane]

If they get rerouted to Tacoma, I'm all for this strike. But seriously, this is a pretty obvious outcome. A general strike is ridiculous and not happening, and would only hurt the American economy anyway.

Hurting the American economy would be good for the long term welfare of it's working class.

This has got to be one of the most idiotic things said on here in a while.