From Christmas toys to clothing and auto parts, shortages of imported products are forcing factories to idle, store shelves to sit empty, and consumers to panic.
What else is in short supply? The truth about what’s causing this economic crisis.
President Joe Biden, who brags about running “the most pro-union administration in history,” won’t admit that longshoremen’s unions are holding the nation hostage, refusing to allow the use of automated equipment to unload container ships and get the goods onto trucks faster.
The U.S. is the world’s largest importer, but its major ports at Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, rank a dismal 328 and 333, respectively, in the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index. That means nightmare inefficiency worse than most developing countries. Not one U.S. port made it into the top 50 for speed and efficiency. In contrast, Japan’s Yokohama port ranks No. 1.
Nearly 100 container ships have been waiting off the Los Angeles coastline to be unloaded. The longer they wait, the more prices for imported goods rise, clobbering consumers.
On Wednesday, Biden announced a “gamechanger,” saying the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach would stay open more hours for a “90-day sprint” to Christmas. The truth is, most ports around the world operate 24/7. Port operators here haven’t done that in the past because union contracts require paying higher hourly rates for night and weekend labor. Dockworker salaries already average $171,000 a year. Wednesday’s announcement was a concession from port operators, not the unions.
But increased hours won’t fix the bottlenecks. The added hours will boost cargo movement by less than 10%, or an estimated 3,500 containers a week. The real problem is the unions’ tooth-and-nail opposition to labor-saving equipment. Cranes in automated ports operate at least twice as fast as cranes in outdated U.S. ports. Biden’s port envoy John Porcari let the truth out when he said last week; it’s “your grandfather’s infrastructure that we’re working with.”
Unions won’t have it any other way. 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.
Here’s the biggest lie, straight from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. He went on parental leave in August, ignoring the worsening supply crisis. But he emerged from diaper duty long enough on Sunday to shovel some grown-up manure. Buttigieg said dysfunctional ports are “one more example of why we need to pass the infrastructure bill.”
In truth, the $17 billion for ports in the infrastructure bill is mostly for emissions reductions, repairs, and dredging. Nothing is allocated for labor-saving automation. In fact, section 30102 of Biden’s Build Back Better Bill expressly prohibits the use of funds provided there to be used for automation.
No surprise. Build Back Better is crammed with pro-union favors, including an extra $4,500 sweetener available only to consumers who buy a union-made electric vehicle and a whopping $14,000 tax credit to homeowners who install energy-saving devices and electrical equipment, provided the contractor doing the job is unionized—otherwise, zip. Organized labor is spending millions in advertising to get the bill passed.
Biden is bought, paid for, and controlled by the unions. Some 98.8% of union money spent on the 2020 presidential contest went to Biden. Now it’s payback time.
The media is hiding that. Last week, a Washington Post news story claimed: “voters blame presidents for all sorts of pocketbook problems that presidents can’t fix.”
Biden could take action, but he won’t. Despite pushing for trillions in new spending, Biden is choosing not to automate American ports. He’s kowtowing to his union backers. That means keeping America’s ports dysfunctional. It’s a drag on the overall economy.
There are many causes of the current supply shortages, from too few truckers to shutdowns in Asia due to COVID. But one problem is fixable: our obsolete ports. If only Biden had the will to act.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey.
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Biden is NOT going to go against any union that contributed substantially to the Democrat party in 2020. Neither will most Democrat politicians currently in office. Public and private sector unions represent a substantial source of campaign contributions to the Democrat party and as such as pretty given whatever they want in terms of a hands off approach when Democrats run everything in Washington D.C.. Whether it be the union controlling the port of Los Angeles or the teachers’ unions that are indoctrinating your kids, the bottom line is don’t expect this administration or any Democrat in office to do a single thing to displease any union. This isn’t a new issue. This has been SOP from Democrats for decades, so it is pure fantasy to suggest this Democrat administration is going to act in any way other than it is currently acting.
What should be of greater concern to most Americans is the picture of at least 60 large container vessels sitting anchor off the coast of California waiting to be unloaded. They are ALL from China. That’s likely tens of billions of dollars in goods sitting off shore right now, that we have to import into this country for everything from toilet paper, machine goods, processed materials to things like iPhones and luxury goods. Virtually everything most people buy has some part that relies on China. Nothing shows the complete dependency of the United States consumer and our economy on communist China than that. That should be scaring the H out of you, as if China ever decides one day to simply cut us off, our economy would quickly grind to a halt.
The Biden administration and the Democrat controlling Congress are busy working over-time to increase that dependency even further. The two major spending bills being worked on at the moment in Congress will result in additional hundreds of billions a year being given to China. All those solar panels and wind turbines that are supposed to dot the landscape everywhere all come from China. The climate change part of those two bills are nothing but a massive wealth transfer from the United States to China. We are literally funding our own demise, as we have been for the last 30 years.
Total insanity to not bring the ports into the 21st Century. The automation would help to speed the process instead of tying up ships in port and the containers they carry. it takes weeks to clear ships and then you also get a shortage in containers for next order. These unions have way too much power and special interests if they can block such a sane modernization of the ports.
“Womb to Tomb”, benefits Right? Same thing that is evident in Federal and State Governments. REAL Intelligence and INFRASTRUCTURE progress won’t be achieved until people with “ Common Sense” start raising their voices. Does the word personal “SELF- INTEREST “ apply?
How much longer are we going to stand for this stupidity and the rest of the BS shoved down our throats every day?! If this isn’t the time to eliminate and get rid of these socialist dumocrats and mixed up gender idiots, when? November 2022? That’s a laugh, we all will be living under an actual Socialist Nazi dictatorship and then only a “real” insurrection will free us, not like the fabricated concocted lie about January!
Of course, this early in Biden’s time, if a long term problem exists, it means Trump didn’t do anything either.
Yeah didnt invite Tesla for EV event since Tesla is Non Union
Little did I know that 50 years ago my minor in Chinese language would change to where Chinese will now become the major language worldwide! . . . I guess I can thank Jackass Joe for that!
I just wish I knew who or the names of the people actually running this country! That will surely be scary!
Quid Pro Quo anyone?
We have no Republican leadership to lead the masses to counteract this Socialist regime.
A few Governors and Trump is all we have. The CCP and the corrupt Unions are killing this country.
I see little hope for America as we knew her.
What floats on swamp water?
Excellent analysis of this horrible situation. Obviously, Biden cares more about unions than the general public.
The Democratic way is to reward incompetence and discourage hard work. Why aren’t Republican and others flaunting this information? We are heading downhill at a rapid pace and should not be throwing good money after bad. Let’s publish the exact numbers media and others and see where tax dollars are going.
Govt employee unions need to be broken up, for sure. When I was in DC, back in ’07, I could feel the evil taking place in those govt bldgs. The smell of attempting total control of all aspects of our lives seemed to just WREAK from them. DC – disgusting capital.
The current WH leadership is influenced by the SOCIALIST LED DEMOCRAT PARTY THIS PARTY, INCLUDING MR BIDEN, IS INTENTIONALLY CAUSING CRISIS AND MORE CRISIS IN GOVERNMENT ! THESE ARE EVIL .TREASONOUS PEOPLE!; THEY ARE DESTROYING AMERICA AND OUR GOVERNMENT AND OUR DEMOCRACY !
Unions are practically an arm if the Democrat Party which is why I became a BECK OBJECTOR so that I was not required to contribute that portion of required dues (to keep my job) that was used to fund political issues, which on average was over 10% each year.
It won’t be long till the Union members figure out they are the prisoners of the DemocRat Party and only upper level big shots in the Unions will gain from this tie-in.
This is another example of the cons of unions, (I am not saying that there aren’t pro reasons to need unions) but this power play reasoning of not using a technology to improve workers efficiency is problematic. I am quite sure they are using the claims of security of jobs of the current workers, because the unions use seniority as the preference for who works certain position, which may include some workers who don’t or can’t learn to use the newer equipment. That would mean that these “preferred” workers would need to have job changes to alternate positions (the union would not allow these workers to be fired) but those workers may have demanded that they can’t be forced out to different positions if it also means a decrease in pay. Neither side of the bargaining table is giving any leeway in this. The company should be encouraging the move to more automative equipment use, but it should not be eliminating the current workers in place either but find a way to pay them their current wage level in another position, eliminating the protests of the workers to not change to automation. The unions need to realize that just because a worker has seniority doesn’t mean they are the most productive for the job needed for the job at current standards. Sure guarantee their jobs but work out a compromise to adapt to current job needs.
This same attitude is occurring at the USPS, the workers totally rejected automation, using the excuses of poor maintenance of the sorting machines, requesting more time for human processing of the mail, which they got and now are attempting to blame someone else because they don’t like all the steps involved with human processing of the mail, which require scanning everything, which means the slackers ( the one who did the least amount of work in the most amount of time) have to actually show a productivity level.
In both incidents, not adapting job skills to current job needs is a dual problem of both the company and the union, especially when neither one wants to compromise. Yes, you can automate the job but NO, you can’t simple fire current employees to eliminate labor costs, you have to invest training and re-training of these employees–eventually in the long term, there will be Maybe less employees because of automation, but don’t discuss employees like mere numbers. Adapt, change, train, followup, retrain, etc.
Every time you pull up the skirt of the operations of a business/government/union cooperative, you see the same thing…..poor performance….high pay….slack work…manipulation of the system and millions being set aside for personal gain, political pandering and theft. Union workers need to get wise….they are being used like pimped out ladies of the evening. While there may still be a need for a union to some degree….they have outlived their usefulness when it comes to benefiting this nation overall. My recommendation…..”push your elected leaders to make this nation a right to work nation.” Break the hold unions have on our economy and way of life. Most unions are far too powerful in influence and control of the government’s activities….and far too many polititians are already beholding to the unions to such a degree, they can’t take a dump without union sign-off>
Socialists support other Socialists. Organized labor is Socialist, Biden is what his current Socialist billionaire and Communist Chinese handlers tell him to be. Whatever it takes to bring the U.S. to its knees so that American citizens will trade hard won freedoms for perceived government security, hateful Socialists will do.
Adding to the slowdown are the new California regulations on big rig trucks that must be 2011 or later, or repowered with a newer engine. Many trucks that drive the nation’s highways can no longer operate in California. If the 100 ships offshore could be unloaded, there are not enough trucks to legally haul the conex boxes to their destinations. California, you have socked it to the American consumer.
Hey AMAC. How can I share this article?
This exactly why Unions have lived out their usefulness, higher wages , less time working, slow downs. Those dock workers are unionized and lazy.
Wait a minute. A high school flunkie who does unskilled manual labor as a dock worker makes $171K?! My buddy is an IT pro in cyber-security with years of experience, and he didn’t come close to making that. WTF?