FILE – In this Dec. 18, 2012 file photo, a truck driver watches as a freight container, right, is lowered onto a tractor trailer by a container crane at the Port of Boston in Boston. Credit: AP
(AP) — The International Longshoremen’s Association and the U.S. Maritime Alliance agreed Friday to a 30-day contract extension, averting a potential strike Sunday by more than 14,000 dockworkers that could have brought commerce at major ports along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico to a near-standstill. Five things to know about the talks:
1. PORTS INVOLVED
Boston; New York-New Jersey; Philadelphia area; Baltimore; Hampton Roads, Va.; Wilmington, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Savannah, Ga.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Port Everglades, Fla; Tampa, Fla.; Mobile, Ala.; New Orleans; and Houston.
2. THE DEADLINE
The contract expires at midnight on Jan. 28 now that the two sides agreed to a second contract extension. Federal mediators are involved, and the White House has urged dockworkers and shipping companies to reach an agreement as quickly as possible.
3. KEY ISSUE
A key sticking point until Friday was a Maritime Alliance proposal to freeze royalties workers get for every container they unload, which the union opposed. Federal mediators say this issue has been resolved but did not provide details.
4. GOODS THAT WOULD BE AFFECTED
A wide range of items transported in containers on ships, including things like flat-screen TVs, sneakers and snow shovels.
5. GOODS THAT AREN’T AFFECTED
Items including military cargo, mail, automobiles and perishables such as food.
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Comments (56)
dave88
Dec. 29, 2012 at 8:50amThis should be easy to resolve. Out of 14,000 union thugs only about 100 are skilled. Double the pay of the skilled and replace the 13,900 unskilled workers for minimum wage. Everyone will be happy.
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Evileye
Dec. 29, 2012 at 11:47ama few years ago (about 20) I happen to be a a terminal in Seattle WA on business.
It was a container terminal.
2 lady longshoremen were checking trucks interning the port to unload the containers.
for some reason they decided to stop. went out side set down and started visiting
Soon hundred of trucks were backup down Alaska Way causing a Humungous traffic jam.
The Seattle police arrived to find out what was going on.Supervisor tried to get them to go back to work to no avail.After about 2 hours they return to there stalls and went back to work .no one was fired.This story just go’s to show how so few can control so much.If they would have been fired the longshoreman’s union would have shut down every port on the pacific coast
A very powerful entity that has a throttle hold on American Commercials activity. .
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1947
Dec. 29, 2012 at 8:06pmObama wants this strike to off set Congress
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lgccac
Dec. 29, 2012 at 7:49amDon’t you just love unions? Can you say “greed”?
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1FreeVoice
Dec. 29, 2012 at 8:40amHave you looked at how unions turned the steel belt into the rust belt? Today “rust belt” is being promoted as someplace artsy and modern. It was an expression of despair, and disrepair when the jobs left because unions made it cheaper to build factories overseas, than to pay their constantly rising fees.
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nocommie
Dec. 29, 2012 at 7:08amPeople ,we need to shut these people down! Do not buy union and boycott anything that is attached to a union.Tighten up and good God do not go to movies.We need to start taking action!Stop spending money,stay off the streets.Stop all gov revenue.
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1wolf
Dec. 28, 2012 at 9:26pmTHIS IS CHESS NOT CHECKERS,
Instead of coming to this site to complain or to vent, What are you doing?
I don’t watch lib-elite movies anymore, I WILL NOT PUT MONEY IN THEIR POCKETS!!! I don’t buy union made products, I research and find better alternatives made in the USA, that includes everything from clothes to snacks and as big as Toyota and Honda vehicles. The way to hurt these bloodsuckers is to cut off funding from a large source, US.
We should be sharing info on ways to hurt them in the pocket!!!!
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sunsetsabunch
Dec. 30, 2012 at 9:15am1wolf@
Right on !!
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Lugnut30263
Dec. 28, 2012 at 8:53pmOne of the things I find odd about the proposed strike in the first place is the standard wage for these longshormen is $50+ an hour. Now add to that the fact that last year their “bonus” on the container royalties which are paid based on the weight of the containers they unload was around $15,500 for 2011. Management wants them capped at 2011 level and union says not good enough…. So.. folks earning $50+ an hour are arguing about a bonus of more than a minimum wage earner earns a year not being enough. Seriously?
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riddleman
Dec. 28, 2012 at 7:25pmAn old Socialist bastard named Saul wrote this script. He also wrote and spoke of what to do next, perfect storm or sloppy storm, the gales are just beginning.
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woodyee
Dec. 28, 2012 at 6:41pmThose scombegs get a “premium” for every container they unload?!?!
WTF where they hired to do in the first place?!?!
FIRE THOSE DIRTBAGS!!!!!
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jessieH
Dec. 28, 2012 at 4:06pmTo all the posts about the “poor starving union workers”. Go preach to the unemployed who can do anything a union worker can, probably better.
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freedomisvital
Dec. 28, 2012 at 4:53pmWell put, well said.
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B-Neil
Dec. 28, 2012 at 3:16pmThey didn’t want the strick to interfere with the inogeration. When they do shut down the Docks that will give Pres. Obama the opertunity to exersize his; LORD and SAVIOR capabilities. The next four years are going to be so much fun. To bad there going to be ugly as well. I’m not saying this becouse Pres. Obama is black. I’m saying it becouse he’s a Progressive Socualist Communist. Spike Lee is Black and Dumb.
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TheBurningTruth
Dec. 28, 2012 at 10:20pmAnother example of our fine education system.
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NOTYERHUCKLEBERRY
Dec. 28, 2012 at 10:47pmB-NEIL
Plez lern tu spel gud.
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ranepowel
Dec. 28, 2012 at 3:15pmSorry, but if you don’t make enough money to pay your unionized workers a fair wage, you shouldn’t be in business and your business deserves to fail.
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1wolf
Dec. 28, 2012 at 3:43pmBravo!!!!!!
Sorry, but if you don’t make enough money to pay your unionized workers a fair wage, you shouldn’t be in business and your business deserves to fail.
The A$$ puppets in DC, should have let GM and Chrysler FAIL!!!! They don’t deserve to be in business cause not only can they not afford to pay a fair wage, they can’t afford to pay their suppliers or their investors.
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justcommonsense2012
Dec. 28, 2012 at 4:07pmi signed up for comments just so i could reply to you…do your homework before commenting on “fair wages”–google ILA (the union) or USMX (the steamship lines) and look at their (union employee) salary and benefit package. Port ‘clerks’–$115K per year, crane operators–over $200K per year. FULL benefits. spout your rhetoric elsewhere, but here people actually read articles and research themselves to become informed before we form a opinion…then we comment. not just spit back talking points we hear on MSNBC.
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ares338
Dec. 28, 2012 at 3:05pmUnion is another word for extortion!
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Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Dec. 28, 2012 at 3:14pmIndeed.
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ranepowel
Dec. 28, 2012 at 3:16pmYEAH! Down with anyone who would pay people a fair wage and benefits! Get rid of the weekend and holidays and minimum wage! Let people become slaves to their corporate masters! It’s the American dream!!!!
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John655
Dec. 28, 2012 at 3:48pm@Rane
No unions and no min wage would mean that each employee is paid what they are worth to the company. Companies would compete for good workers. New workers could get their foot in the door would a low wage and work their way up the ladder with a good work ethic. And lazy and worhless workers would work for the bad comapines and low wages just as they should.
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Cronpolis
Dec. 28, 2012 at 7:11pmThe Union usually only protects the drunks and the drug users these days. The Union used to mean something, but has since gone the way of the typewriter! Unions were supposed to protect the worker from harmful environments, but now that big brother (The government) has that ability to do that the Union has become pretty much useless. The only thing that the Union has the ability to push is the wage, but seldom does that and when they do the Union dues go up as well so the fat cats at top in the Unions get more money to line their pockets so that they can line the next politicians pockets as well. Big old circle jerk if you ask me
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TheBurningTruth
Dec. 28, 2012 at 10:24pmWhenever anyone (RANEPOWEL) adds the modifier “fair” to something like wage or taxes, you know two things:
1) “fairness” has nothing to do with it
2) that person is probably cutting a cut (union worker) themselves.
There is NO fairness in holding a company hostage and threatening to destroy it if your demands are not met. There’s no fairness in they’re getting 2x to 3x the national average just because they’re a group.
Fairness isn’t part of it, and RANEPOWEL is hiding behind it just like his idol Barry does with taxes.
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ICEDRAGONNITE
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:59pmAs soon as the Financial Cliff is taken care of you can be sure the Longshoremen Unions will strike demand all kinds of dollars and bennies. So If a union has a strangle hold on the nation the only sensible response is to give in right? No way. Call out the Troops and devolve the Unions. But under BO this will not happen, because he wants to bankrupt this nation so putting the unions out of business is against his agenda. So and I will suffer an exorbitant increase’s in goods and products. Another hidden tax from our Communist Government.
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South Philly Boy
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:53pmThey just make PRICES HIGHER for EVERYONE
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ranepowel
Dec. 28, 2012 at 3:18pmSo THEY can get a FAIR WAGE.
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Displacedsoutherner
Dec. 28, 2012 at 5:55pmIsn’t a fair wage what the market says that job is worth?
If you want to spend 10 years in med school you’ll be in a profession that is not only in high demand but also necessarily one not overpopulated, hence higher worth, you make big bucks.
If your high school dropout education means all you can do is tighten the lugs nuts on the left rear wheel of a car passing along the assembly line it would seem a fair wage is the amount for which someone is willing to do that job, NOT what a union contract arbitrarily says it’s worth.
The union dodge is calling inflated pay and benefits “a fair wage” when even the dumbest guy on the line knows they’re taking their employers to the cleaners…although union members have been brainwashed to believe they work for the union, not the company whose name is on the building.
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valleyfever
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:47pmMaybe somebody needs to publish the wages dock workers receive for unskilled manual labor.
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ranepowel
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:59pmThat information is readily available. Average salary for them is 36k a year. Wow. The horror.
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Cronpolis
Dec. 28, 2012 at 7:16pmNo they need to publish how many of them own guns! and their addresses!
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Arshloch
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:45pmThe only deal to be made with any union is – WORK or GET FIRED. Dealing with any thug is a waste of time and resources; ask Boehner.
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Moliminous
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:21pmThere are about 356,000 folks out there who could step in and perform this work (and probably better) and they are willing to work. Let the union pout and let these real workers have a job.
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Ghandi was a Republican
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:27pmSupply and demand. Unions have cut their throat because of their own greed. Unions hurt EVERYONE. It’s a constant fight to overcome the damage they cause, even the immediate damage around the communities where their members come and return from every day.
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redfish52
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:41pmI was behind a guy today in traffic that had an Obama 2012 and a pro-union sticker on his back truck window, the one that say’s if you like your weekends thank a union worker….as I pulled up beside him I was shaking my head to which he rolled down his window and yelled if I had a problem. I told him I didn’t seem to be the one with the problem and drove off…he tailgated me for a good mile screaming and giving me the finger because once I was in front of him he saw my “Miss me yet”, NRA, TEA PARTY and Don’t tread on me stickers…..priceless.
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oldguy49
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:44pmi will work for less than they do and be non-union………………
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ranepowel
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:58pmEnjoy your minimum wage work with no benefits, then. How great is it going to be when you hurt your back and can’t afford to see a doctor and then get fired for missing work?
We need MORE unions in this country, not less.
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Fubared
Dec. 28, 2012 at 4:13pmrane
What does your shop steward have for lunch? You got a lil on your nose. Pay your dues troll.
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AmericanStrega
Dec. 28, 2012 at 8:04pmranepowel
Posted on December 28, 2012 at 2:58pm
Enjoy your minimum wage work with no benefits, then. How great is it going to be when you hurt your back and can’t afford to see a doctor and then get fired for missing work?
We need MORE unions in this country, not less.
RANEPOWEL:
I work for a Non-union mfg as a machinist. I make one heck of a nice wage for my skill. My employer provides insurance (health, life, short-term disability, etc) at a cost of $16.94 per week (we get paid on a weekly basis). My employer also provides a weekly incentive bonus of 4% of our weekly wage (as long as you work the prescribed hours per week). My employer offers a 401k program, if the employee wants to participate. My employer also gives we employees paid holidays, Christmas bonuses (I got $252.63. I’ve only worked there 2 years, so after 5 years I get $500 before taxes. Not bad). For the Christmas and New Year holiday, we employees have 11 days off (counting weekend days). My employer is paying us employees 5 of those days as holiday pay, an employee can make up the couple days of no pay if he/she wants to burn a vacation day. All my employer asks of its employees is to do our jobs the best we can and build a product that is in high demand. We do it gladly and are compensated very well WITHOUT a union. Oh, and when one of us employees get’s hurt on the job, we get fair compensation and still have a job to come back to once we are able. Pretty good for a NON UNION
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COFemale
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:12pmSo not only does our government operate under extortion the unions do also. I am ready to break the unions once and for all. They are nothing but greedy bastards who feel they are entitled.
If you want a piece of the pie then start your own cargo company. Invest your hard earned dollars, find venture capitalist to invest, hire the workers under YOUR UNION RULES. Then tell me you look at your business any different than your current company.
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no1hd
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:11pmLock them out, abolish that union, hire others to do the work. No union should be able to control the nations economy.
Then go up to canada and down to mexico, both coast of each country and build ports. Bring the freight in there. Put it on the rails or trucks. It will take time, but it will put these people on their heals.
That solves that.
Name the ports after the union bosses
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Ghandi was a Republican
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:10pmAnother real big problem you see right her. Conflict of interest. The Unions want an ever increasing cut of want they UNLOAD. That aligns their interest with what we IMPORT! That puts their interest in overseas goods, not American made goods. In their portion of the Union empire they are polar opposite of the interests of American workers. Do they care? Will they care? Where is their bread buttered?
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Ghandi was a Republican
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:22pmLogically “the collective” would benefit if they unloaded everything for Free. Logically they should receive more morsels for LOADING American products and penalized for unloading these evil imports. Who are these greedy people? Why are they so self-centered? Why do they not think for the good of the collective? They should be made to report to the ministry of
A. miniiluv: Ministry of Love (law and order)
B. minipax: Ministry of Peace (war)
C,. Miniplenty: Ministry of Plenty (rationing)
D. Minitrue: Ministry of Truth (propaganda)
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Ghandi was a Republican
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:07pmWell – according to obaam we know this… Their salaries (and benefits) should be capped so that others can have more. That haw “the collective” works. No real standard, just cutoff points. No mention of how this works and who beenefits from it all except what we know from history. the Ruling class decides that while taking their “cut” from the big pie. Human nature being what it is- that’s going to be as much as they can possibly get away with – all the way down to the clerk who processes your paperwork for healthcare. That’s where the mafia sneaks in and controls the real World.
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craftkal
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:06pmLooking fo Blaze-er input. In past few yrs. horrific mass shootings. AZ. Col. Conn. ect, Talks of gun control.Even talk of confinsation .Now if some are paying attention .Gun buy backs popping up all over. States (citys countys and towns) 100to 200 bucks in gift cards (really??).Just an opinion here.With no accountabilty on these guns which will (uh-hum) be destoyed.Is this a way to clean up Fast an Fur. in AZ. or mabe gun runner in Fl. mabe Bengazi. or who knows,. wheres Hillary.Does AG.Holder know. Wheres cash comming from on by back.Awfull sm amt 1-200.Lots to concider here
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Cavallo
Dec. 28, 2012 at 1:52pmIts so corrupt its almost something from a movie. There are a lot of organized mischief involved in this Royalty scam. Crime family nepotism, payoffs, kickbacks, extortion… The Unions are no longer investigated by the FBI because they both now work for the same Master.. The State.
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naughtycal
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:04pmIt sounds to me like long shoremens union constitutes a threat to the U.S. AND ITS ECONOMY…..Sounds like grounds for termination and restructuring of the industry.
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progressiveslayer
Dec. 28, 2012 at 1:42pmUnions are as bad as our one party political system,both should cease to exist and the sooner that happens the better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pcXcfeurOs
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mcsledge
Dec. 28, 2012 at 1:40pmUnions may have had a place in society at one time. Now, they are no better than organized crime.
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Ghandi was a Republican
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:12pmThey aren’t even “Unions” anymore”.. They want to control the workforce as if an American’s life sustenance depends on it. The same danger with Central planners controlling your medical care. — OBEY!
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COFemale
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:15pmThey are organized crime. Unions are run by the Mafia and Communist. Get a clue. Some members are oblivious to this revelation.
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Fubared
Dec. 28, 2012 at 1:38pmImagine that, a few thousand greedy toads have no issues screwing things up for the masses. F em.
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naughtycal
Dec. 28, 2012 at 2:07pmSo the union could cause serious damage to an already weaken econmy…..That sounds like it constitutes a threat to America…….Time to dismantle the union or terminate all of them we have millions standing in line waiting to fill those positions.
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