Madman at the Ports...

Recently, the International Longshoreman's Association (ILA) launched a strike in east coast ports from Maine to Texas. As is the typical M.O. for labor union strikes, higher wages and expanded benefits are the goal. The origin of labor unions is found in the past abuses of labor by management. Unions were created to increase bargaining power of workers with management. For perhaps nigh a century they played a pivotal and beneficial role in the advocacy of fair wages and benefits for workers. In recent decades labor unions have been besieged by corruption and the influence of organized crime. Have they outlived their purpose? Perhaps...

APM terminals at the Port of Mobile use semiautomated gates to process trucks, precluding the need for union labor. The resulting outrage from the loss of jobs resulting from this automated task is one of the reasons for the strike. It's worth mentioning that this automated gate has been in operation for years. As of today, the strike is off with a tentative deal on wages and benefits. However, the issue of automation at the ports is unresolved until the cooling off period expires January 15, 2025. 

The president of the local union in Mobile claimed, "Machines don't pay taxes." Neither do laptop computers and cellphones but it would be hard to imagine doing business in any industry without them. The productivity that both have brought is enormous. The savings resulting from the technology is inestimable. Harold Daggett has waged war on automation at the ports. This is somewhat akin to a caveman at seeing the prototype of a wheel and proclaiming "Wheel, huh, that's the stupidest thing I have ever seen..." Technology is an integral part of modern life and culture. Deal with it Harold.

A little history on Harold Daggett, and his progeny. Harold is the president of the union and makes nearly a million dollars a year. He lives in a mansion in New Jersey. He drives a Bentley and owns a 76 foot yacht. His son Dennis has been an ILA official since 2005. As of 2024 the younger Daggett was executive vice president of the ILA and head of the New Jersey local once led by his father. It's not clear whether there is any technology to be found in Harold's home, such as a washing machine, microwave oven, or dishwasher. Harold doesn't seem to understand that advances in and the adoption of technology is directly tied increased productivity and economic growth. To ban the benefits of automation technology at our ports means that whatever the level of productivity we have at our ports now, that's all we're ever going to get. Oh, and by the way, the wages for the un-automated manual labor doing the work unloading the ships needs to go way up. Your current 50% offer, that's not enough. Tripling the employer contribution to benefits, that's not enough. 

In the past  Daggett was accused of being an associate of the Genovese crime family. In 2005 George Barone, a former Genovese crime enforcer who turned states evidence testified that Daggett was controlled by the Mafia. In his own testimony Daggett depicted himself as a victim of the Mafia and said that Barone had threatened to kill him in 1980. Daggett and two codefendants in the trial were found not liable on civil RICO charges of extortion conspiracy and fraud. One of the codefendants, Lawrence Ricci disappeared during the trial; his body was found weeks later in a New Jersey diner in a decomposed state with multiple gunshot woulds. The murder remains unsolved. 

Interestingly, Daggett is a critic of the Biden administration. He recently threatened to "cripple the American economy" before the election via an ILA strike in ports on the Atlantic seaboard and Gulf coast. The ILA demanded a pay raise and a freeze to automation to East Coast and Gulf Coast ports. Longshoremen currently earn a starting wage of $39/hour (the average American hourly wage is $28.34) Under Daggett's proposed contract the wage would move to $69/hour with a 60% increase over 6 years. The ILA subsequently demanded a 77% increase over a 6 year contract. In a union produced video posted to the ILA's YouTube channel, Daggett said "I will cripple you, and you have no idea what that means. Nobody does." He goes on to expound on the details, including commodities and materials not being delivered leading to people losing their jobs, shopping malls closing,  etc... I deserve more money. Everybody's hating my guys now because they realize how important our jobs are." 

OK, we get it Harold. You and your 54,000 longshoremen are the ones who allow us the benefit of imported goods. You have the say-so. And if we want to continue receiving them we will have to pay you and your thugs more than most of us make to get them. I dont know but this kind of sounds like extortion to me. You know, walks like, sounds like, looks like a duck... And this happening 30 days before an election?.. This is starting to smell like that New Jersey diner with the body of a state's witness decomposing in it.