Dock Workers Strike

This could get interesting. Closing down the west coast ports would really put a hammer to the US economy. Pretty hard to export these jobs and dayum, seems like the dock workers are making a pretty good living.

"The average dockworker now makes $147,000 a year in salary, plus $35,000 a year in employer-paid health care and an annual pension of $80,000, according to an association press release."

Que union bashing........

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-...hain-looms-west-coast-port-worker-talks-break

 

Ridiculous!

 

Eh, they get paid what they're worth. If a CEO can make millions I suppose the dock workers can make a paltry 6 figure salary. They get paid that kind of money because they're worth it right?

 

They may not be worth their value too much longer.

 

funny the east coast NJ docks are increasing capacity, man hours, and required overtime for all the hourlies. My buddy was pissed... and he was counting the days for retirement. Just has to grin & bare it another 9.5 years...lol. This is a guy that got a job a million folks in the NE would give a kidney or vital organ for.

 

Wonder how many boats will just run down through the Panama canal and hit a southern port.All the crap we get from China here at work comes through Wilmington / Charleston or Savannah.Id gather its cheaper to go that route rather than having them trucked cross country.

 

Those new container ships will not fit through the Panama canal..

 

Sounds like it's time to start digging a really deep and wide channel across the southern border of Texas. I see a solution to 2 problems.

 

This place is so hypocritical lol these guys defend a ceo's golden parachute even after he effs up then turn around and crucify an hourly.

 

Care to post a link?

For the record I think CEO pay should be voted on by the owners to keepincestious boards in check. But that does not mean limited as some socialists propose.

 

A six figure income is not an hourly in my book.

 

One of my hourly coworkers made $138,000 last year. worked a shit ton of doubles

 

Ummm. What?

I looked for some sort of cite in that very-clearly-op-ed-disguised-as-reporting article but couldn't find one. It will be very hard to convince me that almost any dockworker makes $147k/yr, let alone the average dockworker. Not saying it's not possible but like Shenanigans brought up, you'd have to work enough doubles to be earning literally two salaries.

 

From memory, those long shoremans unions are some of the worst in terms of engaging in nasty thug behavior.

They are paid well (no problem) but what I object to is them striking and crippling the economy. The port companies can and should just end the relationship with the union and fire them all. Hire back any good ones and hire new guys for the rest. When a contract is up, a company is not obligated to resign, just as the union members are no longer obligated to work. You need a lot of spine to pull that off though.

 

Actually, I was being kind of sarcastic. When CEO's pay comes up then everybody says they get paid what they're worth. So I was kinda of saying if the management has decided it is worth paying them that kind of money then I don't have a problem with it.

 

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101732058#.
http://www.pmanet.org/the-ilwu-workforce

From the second link which is from the Pacific Maritime Association...

"Wages
ILWU workers receive a compensation package that is among the most lucrative among all blue-collar workers in the United States. Full-time workers earn an average of $147,000 annually in wages, along with a non-wage benefits package costing more than $82,000 per active worker per year."

 

Dock workers 10 years from now wont strike, or bitch, or eat, or poo, or smoke or anything. Just reliable power and the occasional shot of oil is all that is needed.

 

Thats alot of cash for essentially grunt labor though. I know alot of people that have the skills to work as a longshoreman but very few that would last 5 minutes as a CEO of a big corporation.

 

Eh. The cost of living is about 30% higher there than Cincinnati also so that 147,000 becomes about 103,000 here. Which can be done fairly easily around here at the right unionized companies.