Until Jan. 15, workers will be covered under the old contract, which expired on Sept. 30. Because this is a temporary suspension of the strike, the ILA’s membership won’t vote until a complete new master contract is agreed to by the union and port companies.
While a 62% hike in wages is unprecedented, it is more than justified considering the international conglomerates make billions of dollars charging customers up to $30,000 for shipping goods in containers. The cost used to be $6,000 per container. Entry level wages start at just $20 an hour for operating multimillion-dollar container-handling equipment. Two-thirds of ILA members are constantly on call, with no guaranteed employment if ships are not available for work. It takes six years to reach the top wage in a job that is dangerous and requires dockworkers to toil long hours in all kinds of weather.
On the picket line in Philadelphia, over several days of the first ILA strike since 1977, dockworkers told Workers World that automation was the biggest issue. Wage increases wouldn’t be as relevant if automation reduces hours or kicks workers out of their jobs
On Oct. 4, after celebrating the cessation of having to walk picket lines for long hours, some workers wondered if returning to work until after the holidays and giving the shipping companies a three-month head start prior to the next possible strike was ceding a lot of leverage. That remains to be seen.
Yes americans keep demonizing automation, you will definitely catch up with china that way
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They aren't against automation per se. They are against losing their jobs due to automation with no decent safety net to cover the obsolete workers. No schooling program, no severance pay, etc. This is a very realistic thing to be concerned about when it comes to automation. Workers in other industries have secured rights to protect them from automation because of strikes like this.
Blue Maga got really lucky that this resolved so quickly before they got a chance to spread their insane conspiracy theory that the union was only doing this to crash the economy and help Trump get elected.
Nope, turns out they were just trying to get a massive pay increase for all their workers, as soon as that was possible they did it, and libs sounded about as unhinged as chuds claiming literally everything that happens is a conspiracy theory against them.
Also how many more times are liberals going to decry and try to break every strike that happens while still claiming to be super pro labor.
