Port Strike

[maxx075]

you can still hustle and make $ in the USA but it is harder than it used to be and you cannot keep enough of it because of the cost of things....

Don't forget the taxes & fees that are applied to literally everything as well.

I would hate to know what the effective tax % is for every aspect of an average American.

 

[Hnthrdr]

I find this amusing. I bet most CEOs would curl up in a ball after one crappy ED shift or a single 24 hour period of military operations. They cultivate the cultist idea of their specialness. Like most people, they can do what they have trained for, take them out of that, and like most people they will fail. For most of them, the stales are pretty low, if they fail, they don't have to watch people die and get maimed, nor will that happen to them (unless delivered by their own hand).

I don't begrudge them what they make, but I absolutely refuse them a dignity or worth higher than my brothers who were layed to there final rest under the Stars and Stripes.

I also get amused at the union workers for very similar reasons.

Life doesn't work were those who hazard the most get the most, but when the privileged who have start extolling why they deserve it publicly, well it sounds like people serving themselves a plate of their own shit.

Of course the complicated bit is our society teaches us all to look after amd sell ourselves as something special. Even I'm not immune to the charms of my excrement.

As the verse carried by Dwight Eisenhower said "Put you hand in a bucket of water clear up to the wrist, pull it out, the whole that remains is how much you will be missed."

Eh I agree and disagree with you. I chose the army route, and stayed a public servant. My brother built a smallish company 50 employees , my wife runs a small business and employs 15 people. The balls and iron will it takes to do that is more than I could/ would want to stomach. Jumping out of airplanes, long field problems, deployment and combat were tough, but signing up to pay 50k or 150k in expenses every month before you even think about taking profit is another level of risk that personally I can’t handle. Obviously soldiers and folks willing to sacrifice for the greater good are amazing, but I wouldn’t discount the grind, the will, and the balls it takes to start a company from scratch and just make it work and grow it. They are always working, non stop, no leave, no holidays, stuff goes sideways and it’s only ever on them, oh and they employee people and pay the bulk of the taxes that allow for us to have a powerful military or other public services, just something to think about.

 

[Robobiss]

I don’t have the best opinion of unions, personally. I worked in/around them after highschool and like others have said, I’ve never seen so many people get paid so much to do so little. I couldn’t imagine being a supervisor in a union outfit “hey can you go do xyz” “well, actually the handbook says that…” my dad was a manager and all of his employees were union most of his working life. Talk about a nightmare. The stories he would tell around the dinner table blew my mind.

I was a temp at one point and they would ambush me at the timeclock all the time if they thought I had worked too late “how many hours did you get this week? We all get the overtime you worked for free if you were asked to work OT before a union guy was, we just gotta report it”

We had a papermill a couple hours away that was shutdown in the last decade. They were allegedly making $35/hour in the early 2,000’s thanks to the union. They had shifts inside of shifts, night crew would punch the clock, half of them would go lay down and sleep, while the other half ran the mill. The next night the people that actually worked the night before got to sleep, while the ones that slept the night before were running the mill, back and forth. They would hardly get anything done for an hour every shift because they had a big potluck every night and everyone would hang out in the break room and eat pizza, chili, and nachos.

Needless to say, the company under and the town is a complete and utter crap hole/ghost town. I could buy a house there now for 30k, less than it would cost to frame and sheath it. You would truly eat your hat if you tried to build a new house there, it would be worth less than materials when you were done. So many people out of a job because of the union it isn’t even funny. There are dozens of towns and mills in my state with similar stories. Unions are cool until they negotiate you into working yourself out of a job.

This entire thing is ridiculous as well

 

[GSPHUNTER]

I heard DeSantis is sending National guard to the ports. Not sure exactly what their responsibility will be. This could get interesting.

 

[Poser]

I heard DeSantis is sending National guard to the ports. Not sure exactly what their responsibility will be. This could get interesting.

It appears that he is going to attempt to use the nt'l guard to resume port operations for critical goods. By his own admission, he's unsure if this is actually possible between the various contracts and the federal regulations, but he is going to attempt it.

 

[KsRancher]

The irony of some members is comical. Complaing in one thread how they can't make enough money and wages are low where they live, then bashing unions in another thread.

Yep. I would be one of them. But I will be honest and say that it is a "me" problem. Not someone else's problem. And I damn sure wouldn't stoop so low as to threaten to hurt the economy and make life hard on other Americans.

 

[2531usmc]

I don’t have the best opinion of unions, personally. I worked in/around them after highschool and like others have said, I’ve never seen so many people get paid so much to do so little. I couldn’t imagine being a supervisor in a union outfit “hey can you go do xyz” “well, actually the handbook says that…” my dad was a manager and all of his employees were union most of his working life. Talk about a nightmare. The stories he would tell around the dinner table blew my mind.

I was a temp at one point and they would ambush me at the timeclock all the time if they thought I had worked too late “how many hours did you get this week? We all get the overtime you worked for free if you were asked to work OT before a union guy was, we just gotta report it”

We had a papermill a couple hours away that was shutdown in the last decade. They were allegedly making $35/hour in the early 2,000’s thanks to the union. They had shifts inside of shifts, night crew would punch the clock, half of them would go lay down and sleep, while the other half ran the mill. The next night the people that actually worked the night before got to sleep, while the ones that slept the night before were running the mill, back and forth. They would hardly get anything done for an hour every shift because they had a big potluck every night and everyone would hang out in the break room and eat pizza, chili, and nachos.

Needless to say, the company under and the town is a complete and utter crap hole/ghost town. I could buy a house there now for 30k, less than it would cost to frame and sheath it. You would truly eat your hat if you tried to build a new house there, it would be worth less than materials when you were done. So many people out of a job because of the union it isn’t even funny. There are dozens of towns and mills in my state with similar stories. Unions are cool until they negotiate you into working yourself out of a job.

This entire thing is ridiculous as well

This is/was the entire Steel Valley just south of Pittsburg that was the heart of America’s steel industry. It all blew up in the late 70s

I was working in the Edgar Thompson steel plant when it went under. Some of my coworkers were the finest, hardworking, men I have ever known. Some of my other coworkers were useless.

That whole region has become an abandoned broken down ghost town.

 

[ThorM465]

I find this amusing. I bet most CEOs would curl up in a ball after one crappy ED shift or a single 24 hour period of military operations. They cultivate the cultist idea of their specialness. Like most people, they can do what they have trained for, take them out of that, and like most people they will fail. For most of them, the stales are pretty low, if they fail, they don't have to watch people die and get maimed, nor will that happen to them (unless delivered by their own hand).

I don't begrudge them what they make, but I absolutely refuse them a dignity or worth higher than my brothers who were layed to there final rest under the Stars and Stripes.

I also get amused at the union workers for very similar reasons.

Life doesn't work were those who hazard the most get the most, but when the privileged who have start extolling why they deserve it publicly, well it sounds like people serving themselves a plate of their own shit.

Of course the complicated bit is our society teaches us all to look after amd sell ourselves as something special. Even I'm not immune to the charms of my excrement.

As the verse carried by Dwight Eisenhower said "Put you hand in a bucket of water clear up to the wrist, pull it out, the whole that remains is how much you will be missed."

I'm about to burst some bubbles and hurt some feelings.

I grew up on a farm where we did poultry, cattle, and share cropping (pre fancy John Deers where everyone put a hoe in hand and headed into the field). I'm a veteran of the Marine Corps Infantry. I wouldn't ventured to assume that I've put a harder day's work in than anyone else here. I'd assume many of you have matched my hardest day worked. I would venture to say that you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that has exceeded it.

I'm a mechanical engineer. I now make a living with my brain. I have plenty of days after 12-16hrs I'm every bit as exhausted if not more so than my hardest day of physical labor.

I have tremendous respect for the hard work you blue collar guys put in and the risks you accept. However, the idea that you work harder than those of us who work with our brains is a fantasy that you tell yourselves. In complete fairness the wear and tear you put on your bodies is significant and shouldn't be overlooked.

I stand by every word of this unless you're that guy in the video working in the NY sewer hole while dozens of cockroaches are crawling over you. Hats off to you sir! You win hardest day worked.

 

[Shraggs]

This

When I was young I was in a union. We were some of the highest paid people in several counties. The company had to close their doors due to the union pricing them out of business.

has been very eye opening for me in this situation, as I’ve seen this happen before.

If it’s true the dock workers are earning 150k that already puts them in the very top tier of wage earners in the country, and over 225k is sought very near top.

A friend recently started as a doctor at about this wage with hundreds of thousands in debt. As a 20 year medical rep, I never made that much. We’re all entitled to maximize our earnings, but maybe out of ignorance respectfully I can’t imagine that wage for that work and seems a key reason to automate.

Several food processing plants followed this battle until they closed forever where I grew up.

I’ve always respected the great economist Walter Williams as I believe he said once that in high inflation those companies that reduce or hold costs will remain in business with less competition in the end…

 

[Weldor]

That is incorrect in my IUOE local 49 working experience. Pull that attitude out on the job you better hope you are indispensable cuz otherwise you just got on the first lay off list and never call again list. I worked highway heavy building trades pipeline and nuke outages until I retired.

Right on brother.

 

[Weldor]

I'm about to burst some bubbles and hurt some feelings.

I grew up on a farm where we did poultry, cattle, and share cropping (pre fancy John Deers where everyone put a hoe in hand and headed into the field). I'm a veteran of the Marine Corps Infantry. I wouldn't ventured to assume that I've put a harder day's work in than anyone else here. I'd assume many of you have matched my hardest day worked. I would venture to say that you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that has exceeded it.

I'm a mechanical engineer. I now make a living with my brain. I have plenty of days after 12-16hrs I'm every bit as exhausted if not more so than my hardest day of physical labor.

I have tremendous respect for the hard work you blue collar guys put in and the risks you accept. However, the idea that you work harder than those of us who work with our brains is a fantasy that you tell yourselves. In complete fairness the wear and tear you put on your bodies is significant and shouldn't be overlooked.

I stand by every word of this unless you're that guy in the video working in the NY sewer hole while dozens of cockroaches are crawling over you. Hats off to you sir! You win hardest day worked.

I can agree, Seen our ME of the weldshop lose sight in one from high blood pressure (stress related Doc. said) . That sucks for anybody over work related S__t.

 

[Snowwolfe]

If a worker feels they are entitled to a % of the company’s profit then they should sign a contract stating their earnings should go down if the company is losing money.