California ports among world’s least efficient, ranking shows

1. California passed a law that all trucks older than 10 years old had to have expensive modifications (I believe for pollution control). Well, the average age of trucks is 14 years. Surprisingly (not), trucks became in short supply in California.

2. They passed this law that Uber drivers were employees, not contractors. Surprisingly (until you think about it), this same law hit owner-operators of trucks. That confuses the legalities of hiring owner-operators, which is a fair number of trucks.

From what I heard, for both of these reasons, trucks and drivers are less available than they used to be in California.

1000+ likes! I need to hire this guy to explain to my boss why our prod deployment failed!

One huge difference is the employee picks the union, it's not a single union per employer.

Demanding higher pay in exchange for nothing is rent-seeking.

This is only true in employment situations with little to no scarcity in labor supply. That is not actually the case in most skilled jobs, certainly not at present. In skilled work, the employer has a clear need to keep their employees satisfied otherwise they cannot sustain their labor needs. Labor scarcity by definition creates substantial alignment between the desires of workers and the needs of the business.

Hence the current situation where unions have an image problem.

Nobody likes seeing an abuse of power, whether the abuse is coming from the direction of the employer, or from the employee‘s union.

Game-theoretically, a smart union should refrain from unreasonable demands, because their long-term survival (and that of its members) is imperilled by public opinion turning against them.

Gonna have to disagree with you there. If BART was driverless, we could have 2-car trains every 4 minutes instead of a 10-car train every 20 minutes. Staff shortages are main reason for lower transit frequency, especially on weekends.

Vancouver's SkyTrain is a great example of driverless trains enabling higher frequencies.

Chinese ports also exhibit occasional recent issues affecting both cargo and neighbouring districts (headphone wearers, turn down volume):

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=993wlZ6XFSs

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=hUtrkfLKyFE (language, first videographer did not survive)

https://yewtube/watch?v=Ikm1CXgOTLo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Tianjin_explosions

It's been a considerable time since any comparable event in a US port. Galveston (1947) and Port Chicago (1944) come to mind, both military cargos, during wartime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago_disaster

Indeed. I had the pleasure of standing on the bridge [1] of a freighter in Tanga once as cement was loaded. (Tanga is a port roughly halfway between Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.) They didn't have containers or cranes. They loaded the cement by sliding bags down a ramp, covering their mouths with shirts to reduce dust inhalation.

Mombasa and Dar must be more modern than Tanga, as they are on a list of container ports. Still, I would expect them to be far behind California in terms of infrastructure.

[1] edit: actually, quarter deck, maybe? It wasn't the enclosed part. I don't know ship terms.

I wouldn't think the Netherlands or Belgians achieve high efficiency by cutting safety

"Biden’s Build Back Better bill, Section 30102, expressly prohibits the use of funds provided there to be used for automation."[1]

The union is clear it opposes automation:

"TTI would become the fourth automated container terminal in Southern California. Total Terminals International’s (TTI’s) decision this week to automate its 385-acre Pier T terminal in Long Beach sets up a classic struggle between terminal operator employers and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).

The union opposes the project on the grounds it will eliminate some dockworker jobs, but employers say automation is needed to increase capacity and keep the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles competitive."[3]

And this results in outdated infrastructure and lower productivity:

"Cranes in automated ports operate at least twice as fast as cranes in outdated US ports. Biden’s port czar, John Porcari, let the truth out when he said last week it’s “your grandfather’s infrastructure that we’re dealing with.”[1]

"The International Longshoremen’s Association contract, which extends to 2024, blocks the use of automation technology. Willie Adams, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents West Coast workers, says automated cargo handling equipment will not be tolerated."[1]

"In a July 7 letter to California Governor Gavin Newsom, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) president Willie Adams cited the pandemic and the US-China trade war as reason why terminal automation, mostly recently seen at APM Terminals’ Los Angeles terminal, would hurt the ports, its workers, and surrounding communities.

“This is simply not the time to allow further job losses to automation. Losing jobs to automation not only undermines the long term capacity of our ports, but it does lasting damage on our families,” Adams wrote [.. seen as] further evidence of the union’s single-minded focus on automation. That was seen most clearly in its surprisingly vocal opposition last year to a limited automation project at the APM Terminals Pier 400 facility in Los Angeles despite having agreed years earlier to a collective bargaining agreement that allowed terminals to automate in return for $800 million in additional wages and benefits."[2]

When Tanzania's port is more productive than yours, then it's time to finally move into the 21st century.

[1] https://nypost.com/2021/10/18/to-please-unions-biden-wont-au...

[2] https://www.joc.com/port-news/us-ports/ilwu’s-anti-automatio...

[3] https://ilaunion.org/2021/05/latest-long-beach-terminal-auto...*

Notably, all of those are more automated.

Edit: It's not even close to the busiest port in the US: https://www.bts.gov/content/tonnage-top-50-us-water-ports-ra...

"In fact, according to the union's own material, the average dockworker makes $147,000 in annual salary and pulls in $35,000 a year in employer-paid health care benefits. Pensions pay $80,000 a year."

Also,

"The ILWU is demanding 3% annual raises over five years well beyond the average American's personal income — which the shippers have agreed to — and some changes in the arbitration system."

I can't find 2021 data but if they did indeed get their 3% raises then the average total compensation by now is 182*(1.03^5)=211k.

---

Another source, also circa 2015: https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-dockworker-pay-201503...

"About half of West Coast union longshoremen make more than $100,000 a year — some much more, according to shipping industry data. More than half of foremen and managers earn more than $200,000 each year. A few bosses make more than $300,000. All get free healthcare."

It wasn't always this way. Walmart used to proudly display banners with 'Made in America' on them.

But as companies left the county, the poor and then the middle class downsized as well.

Companies left looking to lower costs, the public was wooed with lower prices and the idea that you could get more now and the politicians made promises that the affected sectors would be retrained, first we would have a service economy then it became knowledge workers.

It turns out that the service economy is fickle and doesn't pay well for the most part. Not everyone can be a knowledge worker and that is not outsource proof either.

Now we are in a trap where companies can not return because they would have to raise their prices and reduce profits and the people who used to work for them can't afford to buy their products now.

Interestingly, studies have found that goods sell for more when they say, for example, "Made in Detroit," as opposed to "Made in the USA."

That keynote is perfectly in line with American principles. It's frightening how homogenous our states have become, and how much power has been taken away from them.