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The actual problems of neoliberal false consciousness: ILA dock strike and fully automated luxury [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-10-01  

“They’re gonna have to give a fuck about us. Because nothing’s gonna move without us."

Dockworkers want their cut of CEO record profits.

Will consumer prices rise in time to ensure a Trump victory?

How will other bargaining strategies operate in the time prior to election day?

x Longshoremen union president Harold Daggett on the picket line early Tuesday:



"These companies... they don’t give a fuck about us. Well, we’re gonna show them they’re gonna have to give a fuck about us. Because nothing’s gonna move without us."https://t.co/866jd6qoVF — Dave Jamieson (@jamieson) October 1, 2024

A strike by dockworkers across the U.S. threatens to close ports on the East and Gulf coasts and seriously impact thousands, if not millions, of business supply chains, causing retailers to brace for potential shortages of some products and disappointed customers. This kind of disruption is the goal of strikes, of course, but the longshoremen’s major demand, beyond higher wages, is quite startling. As the New York Post put it, the workers’ union is demanding a “total ban on automation,” and is holding the industry hostage for what analysis firm J.P. Morgan estimates as a $5 billion a day impact to the economy. Specifically, the International Longshoremen’s Association says 85,000 U.S. workers and “tens of thousands” more around the world are demanding a ban on all kinds of automation at cargo ports. That prohibition would apply to cranes, gates, and moving shipping containers around the busy, sometimes chaotic scenes at commercial dockyards, according to the Post. What this means is that when a giant container ship arrives at a dock, every one of those multi-ton shipping containers would be shackled to a crane’s cable, lifted off the ship, moved ashore, stacked, organized, and moved around by trucks and hoists, each with a human at the controls. [...] But herein lies the problem. Accidents at ports risk not only physically harming people, but mean potential economic hits through damaged cargo or expensive dockside machinery or shipboard equipment. Apart from accidents, mislabeling or misdirecting cargo at a port could also hit businesses’ revenue. Replacing fallible human workers could thus save port operators a lot of money. www.inc.com/... It's beautifully ironic that Daggett wants more money, yet supports the guy who JUST said that if his employees came to him wanting a raise or overtime, he would just fire them. x The head of the International Longshoreman's Association, the largest maritime union in North America, pledged to cripple the country until his members demands are met.



Listen: https://t.co/3j0t03pUlg pic.twitter.com/WqHr7F89Kw — Politics Tart (@MoistenedTart) October 1, 2024

The most important word in the language of the working class is solidarity.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/10/1/2274035/-The-actual-problems-of-neoliberal-false-consciousness-ILA-dock-strike-and-fully-automated-luxury?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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