US ports longshoremen’s strike (East and Gulf coasts)
Normally you see this and it's the big company and CEOs that are the bad guys, but now the script is flipped and the employees and union are being made out to be the bad guys.
Also for note of reference, the starting pay for longshoremen on the east coast tends to be around $20 per hour starting pay and tops out at $39 per hour, as opposed to the west coast which has an average of $43.82 per hour, so that does take into account starting to top end, I believe I saw where $54 an hour was the top rate on the west coast.
Its the timing of it. On the surface, very suspect.
5 weeks out from Presidential election, Dagget with Trump in photos, his pending retirement and the demands.
I still say, imo, the timing was for as much leverage as possible and not some nefarious coordinated strike w/ either politician.
However, as it turns out, ILA President Harold Daggett - drives a Bentley. Owned ( recently sold ) a 74ft yacht and makes $728,000/yr as President of ILA and $173,000/yr as President of local union branch.
The optics here are pretty shallow. Here is a guy pocketing close to a $1,000,000/yr in salary, travel paid for thru union etc and he is banging the drum for MORE money for the worker.
So why is he earning that much money? would $400,000/yr cover him? $500,000? i mean lets be real here.
here is ILA charter- ( dues formula on page 32 )
https://ilaunion.org/wp-content/uploads/ILA-CONSTITUTION-REVISED-11-1-16.pdf
lets just say, on average, members pay $450 annual dues x 85,000 member =$38,250,000 a year the Union takes in on dues. Thats a LOT of chedda.
Im ALL for the little guy to get paid. Just like NFLers- get it while you can. But lets be quite clear here about who asking for what from whom to benefit who exactly. Daggett isnt some philanthropic do-gooder.
It all stinks imo. and in the end, its the dock worker who gets crapped on, regardless. Maddening.