News Blackout - Facts from the West Coast Port Strike

[Jeebus]

The labor dispute has been triggered by 500 clerical workers at the ports, members of the relatively small Office of Clerical Union Workers. Their industrial action and clout has been significantly strengthened because some 10,000 members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have supported them, refusing to cross the clerical workers' picket lines.

The walkout involves clerical workers from a chapter of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, who typically make more than $160,000 a year. Dockworkers are a separate unit of the same union.

Seriously, the clerical workers make at least four times what the average worker makes, and even twice as much as a Chicago public school teacher. Yet they're striking, even though (here comes Fact Number 2) "Shippers ... have offered lifelong job security to the 600 or so full-time clerical workers ... (and) also have offered to boost average annual pay from $165,000 to $195,000 and grant 11 weeks of paid vacation."

Readers who understand the union-favoring, far-left orientation of the press, especially that of the Associated Press, understand perfectly why these fun facts have failed to make their way into the vast majority of establishment press stories.

Greedy union 1%-ers.

[Phineas Finn]

It drives the right crazy when workers join together to prevent union busting. The shippers are basically attempting to bribe current workers so that they'll agree to kill their union.

[The Eternal White Belt]

Why do workers making well over 6 figures need a union?

[zenwalk]

Greedy union 1%-ers.

<getting out the trombone> Waaa Waaa Waaa Waaa

[Jeebus]

Why do workers making well over 6 figures need a union?

To stop their greedy corporate employer from exploiting them by only giving them $150,000 per year and 10 weeks vacation.

[banner1124]

Are there any links to the actual "facts" being discussed here or are we supposed to just take this guy's word for it that what he's telling us are facts are actually the facts?

[Phineas Finn]

Why do workers making well over 6 figures need a union?

Because that's how big the pie is and because they have the bargaining power to demand it. Without the union their current high wages wouldn't last for long.

It's interesting that for today's radical capitalist, ownership has a right (a responsibility) to charge as much as they can get for their product, but labor should be willing to work for as little as possible.

[zenwalk]

are we supposed to just take this guy's word for it that what he's telling us are facts are actually the facts?

It's a news blackout, so yeah.

[overtaxed]

I find it very hard to believe a clerk makes 160k. I would like to see a link, other than the one provided to verify that type of wage.

[gonzoliberal]

(sigh) Another day, another jeebus lying thread.

What f'n "news blackout"??

[Jeebus]

(sigh) Another day, another jeebus lying thread.

What f'n "news blackout"??

Weed has diminished the cognitive centers of your brain, Cheech (or Chong, your pick).

Re-read my post - it's not the news about the strike that's in a blackout, it's the facts about the union salaries and benefits and what exactly they are looking to get from the strike.

Back to your bong hits.

[reg_indy]

Weed has diminished the cognitive centers of your brain, Cheech (or Chong, your pick).

Re-read my post - it's not the news about the strike that's in a blackout, it's the facts about the union salaries and benefits and what exactly they are looking to get from the strike.

Back to your bong hits.

Whats the source for the salaries and benefits?

[Calamari]

(sigh) Another day, another jeebus lying thread.

What f'n "news blackout"??

Pesky facts, always interfering with the yargle-bargle jeebus is spewing.

[demopublican]

Mexico needs to ramp up capacity at the ports in Ensenada & Rosarito and start shipping the stuff in on a train or truck

[The Eternal White Belt]

Because that's how big the pie is and because they have the bargaining power to demand it. Without the union their current high wages wouldn't last for long.

I am not anti-union, as I see the benefit for low-wage earners, however we are pretty far removed from the horrid labor conditions of the late 19th/early 20th centuries that necessitated such wide-spread usage of unions.

And IMO, they should be paid what the market conditions dictate they should be paid. If the market is not there for their services, then so-be-it. Then their value is such that ownership will have to make a decision to up their salary should they decide to walk.

It's interesting that for today's radical capitalist, ownership has a right (a responsibility) to charge as much as they can get for their product, but labor should be willing to work for as little as possible.

There's a difference. Unions are a form of collusion, which is illegal for businesses to engage in. The US forces the market to dictate prices for things, hence our stern opposition to cartels, monopolies and the like.

I'm OK with unions and their collusion in some cases, but in other cases, I feel like the unions exist only to line their own pockets.

[dsummoner]

So-called labor, a mere cost of production, getting uppity yet again? Such is to be expected from the reactionary so-called labor class given the indivisible ties between so-called labor and socialism in all of its varieties.

Source: Workers and oppressed peoples of the world unit.

“Picket line means don’t cross,” chanted striking Service Employees Local 1021 workers and their community supporters as they picketed all seven terminals at the Port of Oakland on Nov. 20. The workers had walked out in an unfair-labor-practices dispute with the port.

Filth of the gutter, SEIU, involved? Shocking!

The workers’ picket lines were fortified by community supporters, including sizable numbers from Occupy Oakland. Other community supporters included the Justice for Alan Blueford Coalition, Occupy San Francisco and the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee. These extra numbers were significant. The picket lines had to be substantial in order to have the arbitrators declare a health and safety risk, which then allowed the ILWU workers to get paid, despite not crossing picket lines and not working....

Orciban (OWS, Orcs on Wall Street) excrement as well? Shocking! Saying no to work and yes to looting... expected.

As far as the monopolistic socialist collectivist 'rights' go... who could possibly support this?

Any company using the Western American ports should immediately and permanently cease all shipping through the same and divert all of their business (in a global community, working well with others, etc.) to Mexico. Any short term increase in transit costs (inclusive of the use of truck based freight haulers from Mexico) will more than be made up for by the long term savings of not letting the socialist looter thugs of so-called labor have their way of rapine, wilding, filthing and looting.

[Gopher]

Any company using the Western American ports should immediately and permanently cease all shipping through the same and divert all of their business (in a global community, working well with others, etc.) to Mexico. Any short term increase in transit costs (inclusive of the use of truck based freight haulers from Mexico) will more than be made up for by the long term savings of not letting the socialist looter thugs of so-called labor have their way of rapine, wilding, filthing and looting.

Sounds like a good plan. Hopefully the companies involved will take your advice.

[BlandFood]

Why do workers making well over 6 figures need a union?

Because without they won't get 7 figures and their contributions to bobo care won't be delayed with the rest of the crowd.

[dsummoner]

Sounds like a good plan. Hopefully the companies involved will take your advice.

If they are a part of the global community, work well with others and are aware of the Obamanian dictum that 'foreigners will not tolerate' then they will.