>Workers began walking picket lines early Tuesday in a strike over wages and the ports’ use of automation, though some progress was reported in negotiations over a new contract.
Any strike on wages/profit sharing is generally fairly straightforward. The union leaders typically want to make the lives of their members better, and that's good and reasonable. This is simply increasing cogs and decreasing net profit. You'll find me in support of these strikes in the vast majority of cases.
A strike on the use of automation is a direct form of ludditism. It strives to subvert technological advancement simply to preserve archaic jobs. It often leads to total collapses of industries as when the technology overwhelms the leverage labor has (such as the mule-drawn barges being completely destroyed by the railroads), which can cause significant frictional harm that could be avoided if the industry deflates instead of collapses.
The problem here is that strikes over technological advancement have real consequences and costs that are often born by consumers. The example of pre-fab homes being effectively banned in CA because of labor is a wealth transfer, not from businesses, but from home purchasers. Sometimes it's just better for everyone in the long run to abandon inefficient forms of production.
Pretending that organized labor always acts virtuously is naive. Pretending that organized labor always act nefariously is also naive. Anyone who makes support for workers as part of their identity chooses an instinctive ingroup loyalty position in a world full of nuance.
https://apnews.com/article/dockworkers-strike-ports-ila-long...