White House sides with union as dockworker strike enters second day
By: Doyinsola Oladipo (Reuters via MSN)
What happens when a President goes on strike? Biden certainly is not promoting democracy with his lopsided support. 'Peaceful protest' overrides any democratic considerations. Consumers don't have a say. Consumers don't have a choice. Consumers are just held hostage until the malcontents get what they want for themselves. Joe Biden loves that kind of democracy.
Just ignore the simple fact that only 45,000 people can hold the country hostage to get what they want for themselves. If a few malcontents can shut down the economy on our end of the supply chain just think what foreign interests can accomplish on their end of the supply chain. Free trade has weakened the United States to such an extent that now international trade is a clear and present danger to the national security of the country.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Joe Biden’s administration heaped pressure on U.S. port employers to raise their offer to secure a labor deal with dockworkers on strike for a second day on Wednesday, choking half the country’s ocean shipping.
The strike by the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) union has blocked everything from food to automobile shipments across dozens of ports from Maine to Texas in a disruption analysts warn will cost the economy billions of dollars a day.
More than 38 container vessels were already backed up at U.S. ports by Tuesday, compared with just three on Sunday before the strike, according to Everstream Analytics.
"Foreign ocean carriers have made record profits since the pandemic, when Longshoremen put themselves at risk to keep ports open. It’s time those ocean carriers offered a strong and fair contract that reflects ILA workers’ contribution to our economy and to their record profits," Biden said in a post on X late on Tuesday.
He directed his team to monitor for potential price gouging activity that benefits foreign ocean carriers, the White House said.
The ILA, which represents 45,000 port workers, launched its strike just after midnight on Tuesday after negotiations with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) for a new six-year contract collapsed.
USMX had offered the union a 50% wage hike, but the ILA's fiery leader, Harold Daggett said the union is pushing for more, including a $5 per hour raise for each year of the new six-year contract and an end to port automation projects that threaten union jobs.
"We are prepared to fight as long as necessary, to stay out on strike for whatever period of time it takes, to get the wages and protections against automation our ILA members deserve," Daggett said on Tuesday.
Hundreds of dockworkers demonstrated at a New York City area shipping terminal in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on Tuesday carrying signs and shouting slogans like "ILA all the way!" as music blared and vendors hawked food.
Trump on Tuesday blamed the strike on inflation, which he said was caused by the Biden-Harris administration.
"Everybody understands the dockworkers because they were decimated by this inflation, just like everybody else in our country and beyond," Fox News Digital quoted Trump as saying in an interview.
"DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES"
The strike, the ILA's first major stoppage since 1977, is worrying businesses that rely on ocean shipping to export their wares or secure crucial imports. It affects 36 ports - including New York, Baltimore and Houston - that handle a range of containerized goods from bananas to clothing to cars.
The walkout could cost the American economy roughly $5 billion a day, JP Morgan analysts estimate.
The National Retail Federation called on Biden's administration to use its federal authority to halt the strike, saying the walkout could have "devastating consequences" for the economy.
Republicans, including Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, also called on Biden to end the strike, warning of its impact on the economy.
Biden has repeatedly said he will not do so.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday it does not expect significant changes to food prices or availability in the near term.
And retailers accounting for about half of all container shipping volume said they have been busily implementing backup plans to minimize the impact of the strike as they head into the winter holiday sales season.
(Additional reporting by Gursimran Kaur, Nilutpal Timsina, Shivani Tanna and Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru and David Shepardson in Washington; Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Sonali Paul)
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You know, all this stuff affects our daily lives. And, believe it or not, this stuff charts a course for the country's future.
At the end of the day, Donald Trump has been proven right on a lot of issues that affect our daily lives. Those opposed to Trump are siding with hostage takers who won't allow us a say in what affects our daily lives. And those hostage takers are telling us that Trump is unfit to hold office?
Of course they stand with the unions. Very few of them endorsed Harris, so they are desperately looking for a late endorsement by a few of them.
Unions that have no competition (non union competition) and do a job that is vital to the nation and everyday lives of it’s citizens should not be allowed to strike. Commerce secretary raimondo was asked a question about the labor dispute. She answered that she did not know and that she was going to stay out of it, smh.
She must have blackmail on Biden. How else does she have a job? Remember her dismissing her own department's job numbers as misinformation?
She has a job because she has little d beside her name and she’s a puppet for biden/harris. That little d works magic, one can be a complete idiot at their job and keep that job.
It is their right to strike, and there is nothing illegal about it, because the posters don't like it, it sounds more like they are jealous of the money and benefits they make.
Go apply for a job with the ILA or ILWA no one is stopping you.
As a point of interest if the ILA got everything they asked for they would still be behind the WC ILA in wages and bennies.
Life was good as a longie in LA/LB.
So a few thousand greedy individuals who already use a lot of automation should be allowed to wreck the economy?
This ill timed action could adversely affect many other workers and families if the strike lasts very long
Oh come on, greg, fuck the country and fuck it’s citizens. The biggest regret is that it could be painful for the “newcomers.” Remember, America last!
So any union that strikes is wrecking the economy? The contract is up and has been for a while, what about the USMX are they, not party to the negotiations, of course, they are but it's all the longie's fault that the strike is taking place.
It is damn easy to blame the workers and not the management or the owners/corporations.
Direct your anger at the corporations and management,
Saw an article earlier, a group of striking dock workers were asked if they support harris, they were completely silent.
There appears to be a partial settlement. Wages were agreed to, the other issues will be suspended until mid January.
via ABC News