By Ray Cardello for October 3, 2024, Season 29 / Post 4

The longshoremen all along the east coast, from Maine to Texas, went on strike this week, bringing the vital shipping ports to an abrupt stop. The 45,000 men who keep the goods Americans buy and those American manufacturers are shipping overseas, moving quickly and efficiently are on strike. These men feel underappreciated and fearful of their jobs as the seaports are retooled to be more automated and dependent on computer-aided transporters of the shipping containers that come and go through each port. They want job security and higher wages. A typical ask for most employee job actions, but they may have overstepped their demands. Both sides have dug in and seem prepared for an extended work stoppage.

The East Coast, specifically the Southeast, is still trying to ascertain Hurricane Helene’s damage and death toll. We are still feeling the pain of inflation with every purchase we make and are approaching the holiday shopping season. This work action should have been suspended for a cooling off period by President Joe Biden. Biden should have enacted the Taft-Hartley Act in the spirit of nationalism. The work stoppage will fuel inflation, interrupt our supply chains of everything from pharmaceuticals to produce to components for American manufacturing, and interrupt the flow of American products to foreign lands.

Joe Biden did not intervene because of the damage it would have done between Biden, Harris, and the unions. The impact to Harris on the upcoming election is more critical to Biden and the Democrats than the impact of the work stoppage on the economy and the country. You can chalk this up to another avenue the Biden/Harris team has traveled in their quest to undermine, no, destroy America. Yet half the country thinks that the Democrats and the inept Kamala Harris are the right choice to steer the country into the future.

Congress has no power in this situation. The President is the only person who can initiate Taft-Hartley, but he and Kamala have thrown their support behind the workers. There are two issues that the union says have to be addressed. One is the demand for a nearly 80% pay increase over the next five years and a commitment that innovation and automation will not come at the expense of union jobs. These people want to force the ports to be stuck in the 20th century while the world pushes ahead into the 21st century. Management cannot make that promise and stay competitive in a global industry, especially when Asia and Europe are already becoming more efficient with automation.

The strike is a tragic event for the East Coast, but the lack of intervention by the Executive Branch is even more tragic. The American citizen is not a concern for Biden/Harris. The manner in which this duo is handling this strike is another clear example of why this Vice President is not qualified to take the reins of our country