It's partially true though (but it's 5 percent of the story spun up into a Fox News talking point of course):
The ILWU is a strong union. They aren't going to allow themselves to be run over by management when there is a crisis like this. We can see in other industries that don't have as entrenched of unions that management is loosening application requirements and training in order to fill their staff shortages with unqualified people. The ILWU has fought hard to protect their jobs handling cargo, which naturally involves using a lot of heavy equipment and carries a high amount of liability for both the cargo and the safety of their coworkers. They should not need to compromise from management's poor planning. Many companies did a slap-dash job at the beginning of COVID and sent everyone home, reduced the amount of training and hiring they were doing, and expected this to blow over in 5 months cause they're dipshits. Now they are paying the consequence, and blaming the union is just going chud-mode.
China has had some rolling blackouts due to the high price of coal in their country. They have regulated and taxed it to shit as part of their effort to reduce its prevalence and fight climate change. This is what an actual fight against climate change looks like and that's a good thing. There will need to be a reduction in product availability for awhile until things rebalance around renewables and other power sources. The PRC has recently rolled back some of the regulation on coal production because things went a bit far and their production took a bigger hit than they wanted due to the blackouts.
This isn't a "you gotta hand it to them" post or anything. We shouldn't "engage in a healthy debate" with the propaganda machine, but we do need to see what it's saying and why. Dismissing it out of hand as just Fox News bs (even though it is) is to disregard a facet of the issue, albeit a small one, and sentence oneself to an incomplete understanding. Looking into other aspects, the running theme that ties it all together is poor and/or a lack of planning ahead.
This includes the overall Covid response by the US and other countries vs. the PRC and those countries who coordinated their response and had things knocked out in a few months of lockdowns. Now it's been 18 months and you've had to bury 700k plus dead, you have tense conditions leading to civil unrest, a vocal minority is exacerbating a culture war based on the tiny modicum of a response you did have, and the alienation (both literal/physical and mental) of many of your laborers is increasing. The best way to get out of any crisis (including this economic one) is with a centrally directed response, but we know that the US (in particular) does not have the tools to do this. They're saying that this could drag on through 2023, but even that is kinda optimistic considering finance capital has been over inflated for a decade before Covid was even a thing.
It's partially true though (but it's 5 percent of the story spun up into a Fox News talking point of course):
The ILWU is a strong union. They aren't going to allow themselves to be run over by management when there is a crisis like this. We can see in other industries that don't have as entrenched of unions that management is loosening application requirements and training in order to fill their staff shortages with unqualified people. The ILWU has fought hard to protect their jobs handling cargo, which naturally involves using a lot of heavy equipment and carries a high amount of liability for both the cargo and the safety of their coworkers. They should not need to compromise from management's poor planning. Many companies did a slap-dash job at the beginning of COVID and sent everyone home, reduced the amount of training and hiring they were doing, and expected this to blow over in 5 months cause they're dipshits. Now they are paying the consequence, and blaming the union is just going chud-mode.
China has had some rolling blackouts due to the high price of coal in their country. They have regulated and taxed it to shit as part of their effort to reduce its prevalence and fight climate change. This is what an actual fight against climate change looks like and that's a good thing. There will need to be a reduction in product availability for awhile until things rebalance around renewables and other power sources. The PRC has recently rolled back some of the regulation on coal production because things went a bit far and their production took a bigger hit than they wanted due to the blackouts.
This isn't a "you gotta hand it to them" post or anything. We shouldn't "engage in a healthy debate" with the propaganda machine, but we do need to see what it's saying and why. Dismissing it out of hand as just Fox News bs (even though it is) is to disregard a facet of the issue, albeit a small one, and sentence oneself to an incomplete understanding. Looking into other aspects, the running theme that ties it all together is poor and/or a lack of planning ahead.
This includes the overall Covid response by the US and other countries vs. the PRC and those countries who coordinated their response and had things knocked out in a few months of lockdowns. Now it's been 18 months and you've had to bury 700k plus dead, you have tense conditions leading to civil unrest, a vocal minority is exacerbating a culture war based on the tiny modicum of a response you did have, and the alienation (both literal/physical and mental) of many of your laborers is increasing. The best way to get out of any crisis (including this economic one) is with a centrally directed response, but we know that the US (in particular) does not have the tools to do this. They're saying that this could drag on through 2023, but even that is kinda optimistic considering finance capital has been over inflated for a decade before Covid was even a thing.