The ' Tip of a (HUGE) UNION ICEBERG ' !

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

True, organized labor is somewhere around 10 % nationally, this country will see and feel the POWER of the Union FIST 'soon.
 
http://www.ilwu.org/dishonest-media-offensive-by pma-jeopardizes-contract-negotiations-and-deflects-from-a-growing-congestion-problem/ 
 
The   ' brilliant '  P M A (Pacific Maritime Assoc.) wants to OUTSOURCE the repairing of dockside equiptment (which  contractually belongs to the ILWU).
 
The  I L A  (International Longshoremans Assoc. ) ( The Atlantic and Gulf coast workers) has pledged FULL support to the ILWU, not to work pacific coast ships who try an  ' End Around ' (via the Panama Canal) !
 
(Warren Buffet's) Huge...BNSF railroad, simply does NOT have enough rail cars / locomotives to handle the Very Large back-up of cargo Sitting on West Coast Piers, due to said equiptment being 'tied-up' in North Dakota, hauling Oil.
 
And the ILWU is now into 6 months of working on an expired contract (7/1/14) , with    ' D ' day (make that  ' S ' day, like in STRIKE) being 7/1/15.
 
AND,
 
lastly, NO ONE sitting in '1600 Pennsylvania Ave. quickly ready to force (potential) Strikers back to work, with an injuction !
 
Oh MY !
 
(Any takers HOW This will play out,...............Union  or Management, .........Anyone )  ?????
 
This is one  'Capitalistic BEEF ' that even the  'KOCH-IES' wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole  !!!
 
PS,
 
United Steelworkers, at Houston refineries want a substantial new contract, as thiers has, or is soon to expire. 

 

[delldude]

 

 
WASHINGTON -- Driven by widespread job losses in the public sector, the number of American workers belonging to a labor union has dropped to a record low, according to new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In 2012, the rate of union membership in the public sector fell by more than a full percentage point, from 37 to 35.9 percent of workers, while in the private sector it dropped from 6.9 to 6.6 percent. The combined rate of American workers now belonging to a union stands at 11.3 percent, down from 11.8 the previous year and the lowest figure ever since the bureau started collecting the data in 1983, when the rate was 20.1 percent.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/union-membership-rate_n_2535063.html

 
Expect them to let them outsource some ala force majure or something similar.
We live in a global economy now.

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

 
 
Expect them to let them outsource some ala force majure or something similar.
We live in a global economy now.

 
I suspect that there  will be a ' meeting of the minds '  SOMEWHAT ...dell.  But make NO mistake, the ILWU is holding 3 of the 4 ACES ! (Remember now, the biggest long haul RailRoad.....BNSF is 'overloaded' hauling ND. Oil) (THAT right there is a HUGE plus for the Union, as the backload of cargo up and down the west coast ports is staggering, and thats NOT counting any slowdown, though the shippers will claim otherwise)
 
Last contract, the Union allowed more automation  (optical readers i believe), But, got a shiit-load of dudes ......Grandfathered-in as a result.

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

"This just in"........ 1/27/15.
 
Appears that Management is going to CAVE IN on the outsourcing.
 
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2015/01/27/3609811/negotiations-logjam-over-a-new.html
 
 
 
I L W U.
You guys ROCK  !!!!!!!!!!!  
 
A Beacon of STRENGTH, for all the little-guys who get kicked-in-the-teeth every day, by  'The MAN' !

 

[delldude]

Selling assets to leasing companies......
What industry have I heard that from?
Cadillac HC.....Obama lied, they too will be taxed.

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

Selling assets to leasing companies......
What industry have I heard that from?
Cadillac HC.....Obama lied, they too will be taxed.

 
Ya, possible, but ya 'gotta admit.............our union brothers and sista's have ....'got-it-made'     !!!!!!!!!!!
 
 
izquotes.com
 
(search........HARRY BRIDGES)
 
God Bless Him !

 

[southwind]

I suspect that there  will be a ' meeting of the minds '  SOMEWHAT ...dell.  But make NO mistake, the ILWU is holding 3 of the 4 ACES ! (Remember now, the biggest long haul RailRoad.....BNSF is 'overloaded' hauling ND. Oil) (THAT right there is a HUGE plus for the Union, as the backload of cargo up and down the west coast ports is staggering, and thats NOT counting any slowdown, though the shippers will claim otherwise)
 
Last contract, the Union allowed more automation  (optical readers i believe), But, got a shiit-load of dudes ......Grandfathered-in as a result.

Yep and just like all unions grandfather in the old timers, screw the new hires! Nothing like union brethren, as long as your on the winning side!

 

[eolesen]

They've won a battle, but it remains to see if they win the war, Bears. Perhaps the ILA is smart enough to recognize that it's better to keep the peace with the ILWU for now. Once the canal widening is done and larger ships start heading to the Gulf or southeast ports, they're going to be in more direct competition with each other for work.

 

[Kev3188]

Yep and just like all unions grandfather in the old timers, screw the new hires! Nothing like union brethren, as long as your on the winning side!

 
Is it "screwing the new hires" when our employer does it?

 

[eolesen]

Is it "screwing the new hires" when our employer does it?

Obviously not at DL, but is the union complicit in that happening?

 

[Kev3188]

Maybe, but only because it's easier to listen to the membership that's on the property now than it is to think about those that may (or may not) show up in the future...

 

[delldude]

Maybe, but only because it's easier to listen to the membership that's on the property now than it is to think about those that may (or may not) show up in the future...

 
When we were in the middle of UAir neg's, had hired a boatload of newbies, most on probation, there was talk of walking as usual, also an a/b mech scale. A bunch of newbies were all twisted up because they wanted us to walk to keep the company from maybe going a/b scale. They told us we had to strike for their future. It flushed well.

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

They've won a battle, but it remains to see if they win the war, Bears. Perhaps the ILA is smart enough to recognize that it's better to keep the peace with the ILWU for now. Once the canal widening is done and larger ships start heading to the Gulf or southeast ports, they're going to be in more direct competition with each other for work.

 
Perhaps to a LESSER degree.
No shipper, who docks his cargo steadily in SEA/PDX/SFO(because those ports are geographically closest from thier asian origin)..is going to steam all the way south to panama, then thru the canal, back up into the gulf, then around florida, so as to dock in CHS !
 
I thought a Chief Bean Counter like you eric, KNEW that ....TIME = MONEY ?
 
Additionally, not every line is going to possess those Super Freighters.
Kinda like why most airlines do NOT fly A-380's.
 
Then of course if the 'Westies' see an all out....'end around' move by asian shippers, ....then I believe that cultivates an environment of all out LABOR UNREST on the west coast 'WATERFRONT'.  That my friend is a group effort that has NEVER been won by management since Harry Truman was president.
 
And again I'll remind you eric, that if 'WARREN' controls (say) 50 % of the traffic from Texas to say places like STL/DEN/ORD/MSP, he's in NO Rush to obtain the extra equiptment that is ALREADY needed on the west coast.
U P ......maybe.
 
This is NOT the TWU we're dealing with here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Duh !!!!!!!!!!

 

[NewHampshire Black Bears]

HARRY Renton BRIDGES................07/28/1901 - 03/30/1990
 
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/31/harry-bridges-docks-leader-dies-at-88.html
 
(his) " Death. A VOID that can NEVER be Filled "
 
" An Injury to One, is an Injury to ALL "
 
Convicted by the congress of being a ' Commie '......... T W I C E...Overturned by the SCOTUS  !!
 
A HERO to the working man !
 
Born on MY birthday,.............07/28.   Well IMAGINE THAT !

 

[eolesen]

Bears, it's not a question of "if" ships will bypass the west coast, but a matter of "when" and "how often"...

There's even talk of some domestic shippers looking to use the new ships to run containers CHS-OAK in order to avoid the railroad backlogs, which I found odd until someone else involved with rail logistics explained it.

Cost-wise, it's a huge savings. Time-wise, as it was pointed out to me, does it really matter if goods being stockpiled for the Christmas rush arrive in (hypothetically only) four days on the BNSF or fourteen by ship?

For the right discount in shipping cost, the cost to the manufacturer to send them out the door ten days earlier is negligible.

For now, BNSF and UP have a pretty good lock on the Asian shipping as do the west coast ports. Once the canal redeux is complete, all that changes. Containers won't have to go ship-UP-CSX-truck-dock or ship-BNSF-NS-truck-dock to get to their final destination. They can go ship-truck-dock.

Throw in the cost of oil dropping below the breakeven for shale and tar sand production, and that rosy outlook for railroads might not be what it was three years ago. Which is probably a good thing -- they're facing some of the same retirement bubbles that airline pilots face, albeit not a hard date because of age, and its much easier to hire a conductor or locomotive engineer with zero hours.