Why no anger towards PMA? They are ones preventing the longshoremen from working.
[QUOTE=RichM;154511]Why no anger towards PMA? They are ones preventing the longshoremen from working.[/QUOTE]
I don’t blame the PMA one bit for not wanting to give those grossly overpaid underworked ILWU slugs, another penny. They should be negotiating for a reduction in gang sizes, increased mechanization, direct ship to rail offloading, and ILWU pay cuts.
[QUOTE=lm1883;154515]It still will not translate into wage increases for the mariner. Freight rates will remain static at best and profit will boost share price, but that’s all. Fuel price, which is the number one cost in marine operations, is the main issue with short sea shipping, not dock labor. When Oil gets back to 125/150 a bbl you will see talk of short sea shipping come back. Canada hasn’t been able to crack that nut and they have been trying for decades.
Meanwhile the trade deficit stands at 35 billion or so a month.[/QUOTE]
Canada is not a good comparison. Canada is geographically a much larger country than the US, but it only has 30 million people (about half the population of California). With the exception of Vancouver, Montreal (seasonal) and Toronto (seasonal), most of its population centers are inland (Calgary, Edmundton, Winnipeg). British Columbia has an extensive ferry system and a lot of tug and barge traffic. Other than Vancouver, Prince Rupert is the only other railhead, roadhead port of any significance in BC. The Canadian Maritimes also have quite a few truck carrying ferries. Halifax is the only international container port of any size. There are damn few freight barges in the Maritimes. One could say that Canada’s ferry system already has its short sea shipping needs covered.
If Longshore costs, and delays could be significantly reduced, we would see a lot of short sea shipping pop up between LA, SF, Portland, and Seattle. There is also potential for short sea shipping on the East Coast.
As it is now, small NE shippers avoid the longshore problems in NY by using VA and Baltimore with a little extra trucking.
Most of the labor cost in getting a container from Yokahama to SF Bay area is US longshoreman. The labor cost per container for mariners is trivial.
Longshore greed still fucks US mariners.
Years ago, Boston lost sealand/maersk due to their greedy unrealistic demands…not that they weren’t going to hire them or pay them fairly, but not pay them their ridiculous demands. Thats tugboat, Pilot, chandlery, linehandler, many dollars lost. They did it again with ro/ro’s that went to Davisville RI instead due to foolish demands. Word on the street is they just did it to the Gray Shark/shitbox other ro/ro that we see on the coast once in a while; I guess they were working cargo for years at what amounts to an abandoned port authority dock with hobo’s loading shit cars, piss mattresses, broken refrigerators etc…longshore figured this out a decade later than threw them out. Tugboat, Pilot, linehandler, etc work lost. Nevermind the welders the Cg makes fix shit every-time it visits a port.
Its not about taking wages from them to give to us, its about them not being greedy fuckheads stifling coastwise trade.
If it wasn’t so expensive to unload cargo from a ship to a barge, and then unload it from the barge again elsewhere, there would be shore sea shipping like Tugsailor says. Thats jobs for US mariners, vs truck drivers. Get trucks off roads until close to their final destination.
Nobody is asking longshoremen to be peasants, but they can’t continue with the unruly demands. I have tons of well paid union men in my family with decades of seniority, none of them have half the crazy benefits these longshoremen do. They may make big bucks too, but don’t have the crazy holidays or free benefits…in the process they had to give up something in the give-take scheme of things.
Do the longshoremen have a drug testing policy/requirement for employment ?
I couldnt agree more with this statement. A skilled captain on a tug in new york with 20-30 years experience makes 120$ a year? Thats insane when you consider all the training and education now to get to that position. Wages are low for all of us. Good for the longshoremen.
[QUOTE=RichM;154533]Do the longshoremen have a drug testing policy/requirement for employment ?[/QUOTE]
I don’t know what the longshoremen generally require. However, anyone with a CDL (truck driver’s license) must have a drug test and medical card - just like mariners.
The Longshoreman Are not drug tested unless the the PMA has. negotiated that in a new contract very recently in which I doubt, they are most likely the Strongest Union ever in the USA. They have a legacy of shrewd players throughout their beginning. Something I find impressive about them is every year they look at the top of the Class at Harvard Law and offer the cream a very Enticing deal the pay the picks tuition with the understand and obligation to work for the union, in return they have the sharpest pencils in all the drawers. They have and can put commerce on its knees ever time they renegotiate a new contract, the timing is perfect politically you have a pro union White House, the cons are simple it costs us all more than most people realize just fallow the trails of the goods shipped. Some say unions are a necessary evil. In this day and age I wonder how popular they are becoming .
[QUOTE=RichM;154533]Do the longshoremen have a drug testing policy/requirement for employment ?[/QUOTE]
The only time they may get tested is in an accident, if that. I know a few in LA/LB and there’s no random.
[QUOTE=Deadeye;154553]They have a legacy of shrewd players throughout their beginning. Something I find impressive about them is every year they look at the top of the Class at Harvard Law and offer the cream a very Enticing deal the pay the picks tuition with the understand and obligation to work for the union, in return they have the sharpest pencils in all the drawers. [/QUOTE]
Interesting. In the past, I have mentioned such ideas to the leadership of my union, only to be rebuffed, with the reply of “thanks for the vote of confidence brother”.
[QUOTE=RichM;154560]Interesting. In the past, I have mentioned such ideas to the leadership of my union, only to be rebuffed, with the reply of “thanks for the vote of confidence brother”.[/QUOTE]
I have also tried to promote that idea and got the same response. It just amazes me that the companies we contract with have the finest lawyers and negotiators on the planet working for them but we keep “hiring” ours because they were good shipmates or drinking buddies.
Is the CEO of Boeing hired because he was good at changing the oil on a 747?
[QUOTE=RichM;155016]http://wn.ktvu.com/story/28155958/us-labor-secretary-issues-friday-deadline-to-resolve-west-coast-port-dispute[/QUOTE]
Replace them all. There are many thousands of Americans that would love to have those jobs at half the wages—which would still be high. The only skilled jobs are the crane operators. There are plenty of experienced crane operators in the US that would love to work on the docks for half what they are getting now.
http://wn.ktvu.com/story/28163919/2-sides-in-west-coast-ports-dispute-reach-tentative-contract
Sorry to disappoint you but it doesn’t look they are getting replaced.