One domestic crisis has been resolved temporarily, providing much relief to an incompetent and floundering Biden-Harris administration that’s dealing with a massive port workers strike, the Middle East on the brink of a regional war, and providing disaster assistance to the flood-ravaged victims of Hurricane Helene. In all three crises, this administration was failing miserably. The Federal Emergency Management Agency diverted beaucoup dollars to help illegal aliens. Now, there’s not enough money to provide hurricane relief this season. The port strike didn’t help, which is another point of contention: how could this union do this now when victims of Helene need supplies?
They were asking for a 77 percent wage increase, plus a provision that would guarantee our ports would never be subject to automation. It was a cuckoo ask, but these workers now return to work, accepting a 62 percent wage increase over six years. This interim agreement provides some breathing room for both sides to come to a new contract by mid-January 2025 (via WSJ):
U.S. dockworkers agreed to return to work after port operators sweetened their contract offer, ending a three-day strike that threatened to disrupt the American economy.
The breakthrough Thursday came after port employers offered a 62% increase in wages over six years, according to people familiar with the matter.
The agreement ends a strike that had closed container ports from Maine to Texas and threatened to disrupt everything from the supply of bananas in supermarkets to the flow of cars through America’s factories.
The new offer, up from an earlier proposed raise of 50%, came after the White House privately and publicly pressed the large shipping lines and cargo terminal operators who employ the longshore workers to make a new offer to the union.
The International Longshoremen’s Association and port operators, in a joint statement, said they had reached a tentative agreement on wages and union members would return to work. They said the agreement would extend the prior contract, which expired at the start of this week, through Jan. 15, 2025 while the two sides negotiate on other issues, including automation on the docks.
The latest offer would raise the base hourly rate for ILA port workers to $63 from $39 over six years, the people familiar with the matter said. One of the people said the offer is being made on the condition that dockworkers go back to work and agree to efficiency gains.
The offer is less than the union demand for an increase of 77% over the term of the contract but a far larger increase than most major labor contracts, including a contract reached last year covering the separate union representing West Coast longshore workers. Many U.S. dockworkers currently earn more than a $100,000 a year, with baseline hourly wages boosted by work rules and overtime requirements.
The final resolution will come after the 2024 election. Before the strike was temporarily halted, a Fox Business reporter asked this bunch of port strikers from Newark, New Jersey, if they were Kamala supporters. Needless to say, this group does not support Harris.
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