A Tale of Two Ports: Automation at Oakland vs. Rotterdam

The key paragraph, located near the end of the article:

>A second reason for the delay in adopting modern automation is the effect on union jobs. Some have estimated that if the Port of Oakland were to implement a modern level of automation, 40–50% of the jobs would be eliminated.

The pay listed is high. Is that true? Crane operators making more than the all rich swe field.

The article says the port charges $300 to unload a container, and can unload 30 per hour from a ship. That's $9000/hour. The cost of labor in the operation is trivial.

The author's calculations of efficiency (units transferred per dock) appear incorrect to me since he failed to account for how often the dock is empty.

The interesting questions to me are (1) are the docks in use full time? If so, automation might improve the ports volume. (2) If automated, would the reduced expenditures on cranes be sufficient to offset the cost of automation?