Just need to vent...

Segway back onto venting, kids that use the Halloween event as an excuse to kick in your neighbor's fences, Etc
Makes you wish you owned a taser

 

Hey the dock strike ended.

 

Technically, it's been suspended - (as mine has been) pending a new contract being signed.
Evidently there is a deadline for ratification and the deets concerning automation are still a little murky.

One source suggests that the....who?
American people?
Port 'owners?'
Shipping companies?
SOMEBODY is going to be on the hook for a >60-percent pay hike perhaps over 6 years.

I guess the toilet paper images prompted swift action on the part of 'somebody.' -eh?


FORTUNATELY the new deal will enrich a relatively few, and only for a short time.
Stevedores have been at odds with technology since 'standard shipping containers' were made from hoops and staves and English textile workers were worshiping Ned Ludd.

 

Sorry it was disappointing news that strike ended?
No talk about ceo’s buying bigger and bigger yachts only what the workers take home when other ceo’s owning their apartments jack up the rents every year? I know the drum beat of it is the workers paid too much money causes inflation is the fault but never the profit pictures. Advertised and ginned up by the same ceo’s.
Not that I have anything against ceo’s, I don’t.
Remember it is President Biden that did this, because that is how it works now. If you are in office you get all the credit. 45 started all that, it can’t only apply to him.

 

Great, as long as the powers that be don't expect the people that had those jobs to continue buying stuff without some type of intervention.

 

Jobs report came out.
Btw wasn’t it Reagan era that more or less started the made in China problem the world now faces? Imagine if Apple would have only a trillion in reserves rather than whatever they have, and the iphone and ipad were made in USA all these years? They once threw a number out how much more, $150 or something more to make an iphone. I love my iphone and ipad.

 

Outrageous wages, benefits, and labor headaches are what causes automation in many cases.

California in its recent Massive Government intervention in the fast food industry - sticking their nose in where it had no business doing so- has completely shifted the labor dynamics and is a textbook example of how this works.

Now there is a giant push for automation in that industry in California due to meddlesome government intervention
California’s $20 Minimum Wage Spurs Kiosk Demand at Fast Food Restaurants - Food On Demand
California’s new $20 minimum wage for fast food workers is spurring the adoption of restaurant automation tools, from kiosks to drive-thru voice bots.
Kiosks are especially having a moment in the state as quick-service chains look for ways to increase revenue and decrease labor costs.
“Demand from the operators is off the charts,” said Sam Zietz, CEO of kiosk provider GRUBBRR.

California Loses Nearly 10,000 Fast-Food Jobs After $20 Minimum Wage Signed Last Fall | Hoover Institution California Loses Nearly 10,000 Fast-Food Jobs After $20 Minimum Wage Signed Last Fall

The Hidden Impact of California's $20 Minimum Wage for Fast-Food Workers (forbes.com)
"Technologies To Replace Human Workers
There has been an increase in automation and self-service technology. Restaurants are deploying self-order kiosks, kitchen automation software and other labor-saving technologies to reduce reliance on human workers."

Automation is the path forward for Ports/Docks - nothing is going to stop that.
If the USA stupidly allows automation to be stopped, then its goods will soon be received in Mexican, South American and Canadian Ports/Docks and then be distributed to America through their Distribution Networks.
Automation is the wave of the future in Ports/Docks.
Top 5 Automated Ports in Europe - Port Technology International

I've see this with my own eyes in the Industry I retired from Automobile Manufacturing -
In that Industry Automation is a must to survive - no Manufacturer can keep up with their rising Labor costs and still be competitive - look at the current turmoil in the American Automotive Manufacturing Sector and the rush to move from Unionized Plants Production to Plants in Mexico. A UAW Plant cannot compete with a non-union plant - in the current economic climate it is an impossibility.

The Rise Of Automotive Manufacturing In Mexico (forbes.com)

The Impact of Mexico’s Auto Industry on Global Car Production (americanindustriesgroup.com)

For further comparisons of how this dynamic works Reference USA - CHINA trade imbalance

U.S. Trade Deficit Increases on Imbalance with China (investopedia.com)

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time (usdebtclock.org)

 

Dems / Schumer control the Senate, though only to the extent that all 4 Independents go along. Two often don't. The GOP / Johnson control the House, with P45 pulling some of them back by nose clamps. FEMA gets only what both houses agree to, and both houses agreed on the budget slice that ColoradoBoo / P45 are bitching about.

 

Oh, the power of irrational public hysteria. And the power of social media to drive it.

A news item yesterday pointed out that 90% of U.S. toilet paper is supplied domestically. Almost all the rest is imported from Canada and Mexico by truck or rail, not ship. A longshoreman's strike doesn't shrink the domestic supply because it isn't imported through them. If the strike does anything to the TP supply, it would be to create a glut here because U.S. TP exports would be blocked.

 

If it means automation, the companies did it, not Massive Government. An American worker can’t become ten workers. It was companies who outsourced to China, no one else. They had a choice and it went to their own $$$ interests. It’s an old story, with China having the very cheap labor a later twist. It’s like, you want USA, then act like it. I suppose it boils down to greed.

 

Try to catch up on current matters:

all that was decided years ago -
How many Americans buy American made TV's?
How many American TV's are made here in the US?
Why do Americans demand foreign made TV's?

People make this a - you - me issue or a political nonsense issue - it is neither -it is Business Economics 101.
And the USA is currently getting a failing grade in that course by the world and by its own citizens as both currently vote with their dollars for other Countries goods.

U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time (usdebtclock.org)

 

Funny thing about automation, how long do you think it'll take before most everything at the average California McDonald's will be run by robots. Having to pay $25 an hour for flipping fries & burgers - is a strong incentive for franchise owners to invest in robots if it's cheaper to run the fast food joint. Raise their wage to $30 & it'll happen that much sooner.

 

If everyone was owned as property and a slave then wouldn’t need automation, or maybe they still would for more profit now that automation is a real thing. Get rid of some slaves. The goal is more profit for the owner. If he, and it will be a he, he can become King and own it all and tell everyone what to do. That’s what we want.

 

"a port somewhere in the Far East..." Probably Qingdao although all large ports in China are moving this way:

China leads world's automated container terminals amid smart tech boom - CGTN

(not many news links to CGTN around here)

==

Calif. fast-food employee stats:

Hiltzik: How the fast-food industry uses deceptive employment numbers - Los Angeles Times

New Study Analyzes Impact of California’s $20 Minimum Wage for Fast Food Workers – Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

==

USA video manufacturing or assembly:

TVs Made In the USA: American Brands Complete List [2023]

 

Some people still like to take their clothes down to the river and beat them on rocks instead of using one of those new-fangled automated clothes washers....

We've seen that a lot since '16 eh?
Concur, about the strike except for the glut part. Post storm recovery efforts in some eastern states and panic buying in states with a functioning infrastructure will strain our 'just-in-time' supply chain - and this will dampen any labour action induced glut.
Paper products and pet food are already in high demand and short supply east of the Rockies due to storm recovery efforts.

The ILA strike will cause a temporary kink in containerized shipping on the right coast because of the op-tempo of our ports and the added lead time and hull availability caused by the Red Sea fiasco.

@ port automation:
See also: The USPS.
Some people seem to forget that 'some' ports in the US are not privately owned - OR operated.

 

I remember when California went to $15/hr for minimum wage. Chipotle used it as an excuse to increase prices beyond their increase in costs.

Fast food places have the kiosks in areas with low minimum wage. Any minimum level is too much for the corporation. It is also why they push to ease child labor restrictions.

 

Ah, those were the days, eh?
What are they wanting now?
How long has it been since $15, again?

We should just make it $100 nationally and stop all the arguing.

 

What sort of life have some of these people lived with their views and sense of entitlement?

In 1968 I worked at a Kentucky Fried Chicken for $1.25 an hour and felt lucky I was able to land the job to earn money. A good step up from selling newspapers on the corner. A lot of the other guys in High School were searching for jobs and couldn't find them.

Within a week of working at Kentucky Fried Chicken I knew there had to be a better way to earn a living.

When High School ended was drafted and joined the Air Force - back then no choice- they needed warm bodies for Viet Nam.
In the Service grew up in a hurry and received training to follow my life's career path.

From some of the replies here there are full gown adults/men in dire need of life training that young kids used to receive in Military Basic Training to teach them no one is responsible for their own life and its trajectory but themselves.

 

.multiple post website issue