As thousands of dockworkers prepare to strike if no deal is reached by Monday, one company leader is questioning union demands for a total ban on automation.
The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) said Sunday that its 85,000 members and “tens of thousands of longshoremen and maritime workers around the world” were on picket lines on Tuesday, “from Maine to Texas. strike all ports on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Mexico.” ”
The union is demanding higher wages and a complete ban on port automation, including cranes, gates and container movements for loading and unloading cargo.
Benchmark Capital's Bill Gurley responded to the union's demands on social media, writing that if unions seek a total ban on automation, the federal government should intervene.
“Outlawing the effective use of technology will undoubtedly destroy our country,” Gurley wrote. “We will lose competitiveness globally.”
The ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents employers at 36 ports potentially affected by the strike, are at an impasse over issues including wages and port automation.
“The United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) refuses to address a half-century of wage suppression that has seen ocean-going shipping profits soar from millions to billions while ILA shore wages have remained flat. “There are,” the ILA said on Sunday.
A White House official told FOX Business on Friday that senior officials from the White House, Department of Labor, and Department of Transportation met with the parties ahead of a potential strike and “committed to returning to the negotiating table in good faith, fairness and good faith.” I admitted what I asked for. Quickly. “
A potential port strike could disrupt a variety of import and export shipments from East Coast and Gulf Coast ports.
The strike is estimated to cost the U.S. economy up to $5 billion per day, according to a JPMorgan analysis.
