Where are the “Lords of the Docks” and Kings of the Roads?

“The importance of economic facts may not be obvious to Americans. ‘What does the fish  know about the water in which it swims?’ asked Albert Einstein … Because they’re not recorded in public memory systems, they cannot be written  up as facts and are, in effect, invisible.  All we have are shadow markets.” – Hernando de Soto

Where’s my stuff? It’s sitting on the waterfront. Ships backed up are not new. From the 1934 West Coast Longshoremen’s Strike to strikes in 2012, 2014, and 2015 disruption of supply chain continues.

Yep, it appears a “Small but powerful union is at center of port dispute” as was reported in 2015 in the LA Times. And now as then, “The International Longshore and Warehouse Union represents 20,000 dockworkers who stand guard over a crucial chokepoint in the global economy.”

More importantly, ILWU workers are not only indispensable but have skills that are hard to come by. “They have unique skills that aren’t easily replaced,” said Goetz Wolff, who teaches about labor and economics at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. “They’re not going to roll over and play dead.”

Have longshore workers been locked out due to contract disputes with the Pacific Maritime Association and/or with their bosses due to wages and safety measures? Consider port workers proximity to “green cork.”

Speaking of green, was it simply an influx of too many deals with too many foreign companies making too many promises? Find out reading my paper Hydrogen & Microgrids: What LIES on US Waters? International Security Command Center Dangerous Ports?

Were workers reported high salaries compensation for what some see as high risk environment?  Recall, the docks came to a standstill in 2002 during the Bush administration. Looks like President Biden too is getting involved. Or as he stated, the “bill we proposed last week” included workers to a 24/7 schedule. But aren’t workers already doing this?

According to Frank Ponce De Leon, a coast committeeman with the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) in Los Angeles, “it’s important to let people know that our workforce and our contracts allow the employers and the terminal operators to work 24 hours a day. We have that capability…since the day I…started working on the docks some 40 years ago. So it’s not something that’s brand-new.”

Under Bush, three months after 9/11, a law enforcement division was created requiring a 24/7 surveillance at Port of Long Beach. Mr. President Biden, Sir,  it’s a new time with new super powers. Who? Just ask yourself, US, “Whose Your Daddy” Bitch? China‡Russia, Master or Commander

Back to the matter at hand Mr. President. If reports of shortage of workers is accurate, doesn’t this 24/7 schedule put more strain on the few who are already under pressure?

Perhaps the mob bosses made the “Lords of the Docks” an offer they couldn’t refuse. The President last words in his speech seemed like a verbal handshake, “Thank the longshoremen. You all brought me to the dance.”

Well, Mr. President, I’d advise you not to fall back on your words or step on any toes. Reportedly, as to your meeting with the head of the ILWU, De Leon commented, “I hope that our workers continue to remain safe on the docks. You know, ILW workers have been working every day through this pandemic to keep the – America’s economy going…”

It’s International Mob Bosses Stupid

Why is stuff so d@mn expensive? James Carville Jr., the American political consultant and author has long been noted for his phrase, “The economy, stupid.” And while it may “hold water” for many countries’ problems, it does not apply to the current state of affairs.

No, the situation at the ports is not due to the economy, pandemic, climate or cyberattacks. It’s the global shipping companies.

De Leon with ILWU points out: “These terminals are owned by foreign-owned shipping companies. And a lot of times, they dictate or control what we do on the docks. We don’t just show up, you know, unannounced and say, we’re ready to go to work. What normally happens is that orders are placed within our joint dispatch halls for labor at a specific terminal or terminals. And we fill that labor and go to work. Without the employer and without the terminal operators ordering us, we don’t show up. So a lot of this is out of our control. And we’ve been facing this for a long, long time now.”

Christina Wilkie with CNBC reported that “The supply chain is, essentially, in the hands of the private sector, so we need the private sector to step up to help solve these problems,” the official said.

Moreover, “during a virtual meeting Wednesday with Biden…” what was more interesting were the names of the key stakeholders or expected attendees as Wilkie notes:

• Gene Seroka, executive director, Port of Los Angeles
• Mario Cordero, executive director, Port of Long Beach
• Willie Adams, international president, ILWU  
• James Hoffa Jr., general president, Teamsters   
• Greg Regan, president, Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO
• John Furner, president and CEO, Walmart U.S.
• Dr. Udo Lange, president and CEO, FedEx Logistics
• Nando Cesarone, president, U.S. Operations, UPS
• Brian Cornell, board chairman and CEO, Target
• KS Choi, president and CEO, Samsung Electronics North America
• Matt Shay, president and CEO, National Retail Federation
• Peter Friedman, executive director, Agriculture Transportation Coalition
• Chris Spear, president and CEO, American Trucking Association
• Ian Jefferies, president and CEO, American Association of Railroads
• Suzanne Clark, president and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
• Geoff Freeman, president and CEO, Consumer Brands Association
• Jim McKenna, president and CEO, Pacific Maritime Association

It seems to me all have a vested interest in moving and getting things moved off the ships and onto the ports. Yet, those in CONTROL of ports and those FACILITATING the KEY lines of transportation hold the POWER.

Passing the buck is the routine for American politicians and their agents. BBC reports that “The White House Chief of Staff has said the Biden administration is tackling the “supply chain mess” that they inherited.” HELL NO, this goes back decades. The “mess” cascaded from deregulating the “MOB BOSSES.”

“Movers and Shakers”

Chain reaction started with basic supply and demand. Short supply of key workers and increase demand of products. Feds pumping $ into economic system put runaway train on overdrive.

As in healthcare shortages of nurses and staff, lowering of wages and unsafe working conditions were the prime shakers for workers leaving industries critical to the supply chain – port and transportation (railroad and truck).

De Leon with ILWU says the problem goes beyond the ports “we need truck drivers and truck companies to pick up cargo, deliver them to the warehouses. We need warehouses to remain open or receive cargo. We need equipment.”

According to BBC’s Jack Goodman & Micah Luxen “there’s an immediate personnel problem, says Gary Hufbauer, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics – the lack of skilled port workers, truck drivers and rail crew to move everything.”

Add to this the ubiquitous use of cameras in the workplace.

Monitoring office workers through their computers has now become the norm. And while it may be unsettling that worker’s computers has a software that signals inactivity when not typing or moving the mouse after only a few minutes, try sitting in a vehicle for 8-14 hours daily with a camera looking straight at you while you drive or sleep.

Sure, in the past the use of technology for surveillance was customary by foreign owned companies (i.e. Japan). But after 9/11, watching people and workers became the norm. 

The new 24/7 schedule can add to an already demanding profession. In an interview with NPR, Brandon Thibodeaux spoke with “BJ Tarver, CEO of Gulf Winds International, a Houston trucking company that works closely with the port, says extended hours are great in theory.”

Adds Tarver, “But I don’t know that that’s an immediate impact. You have to have an infrastructure that can support 24 hours a day, right? So drivers have to restructure their lives to be able to support that. Your customers have to be open to receive it and unload it. It’s not something that happens immediately.”

New workers? Truck drivers, whether they’re picking up containers from the ports or delivering crates of food or dropping off cases of beverages at sport stadiums, have to be vested and that takes time and $.

Monopolization of distribution sector has also affected supply chain crisis. According to an October 1, 2020 article in Brewbound,  “Two years after the distribution shakeup of 2018, the aftershocks continue to be felt, as Anheuser-Busch InBev continues to reshuffle its network.”

After mergers, some distributors too reshuffled their truck drivers by requiring them to reapply forcing them to decide between keep a job losing their seniority and retirement savings or apply elsewhere and roll over their 401k.

Just two months later, Alcohol Justice, the “Watchdog agency calls for investigation into Anheuser-Busch InBev’s actions in California.” Kendall Jones with washingtonbeerblog.com reports that “Ace Beverage, LLC is currently targeted for takeover by Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI).”  

Jones points to the watchdog agency letter to the State’s Attorney General, “if the merger is allowed to go forward, the takeover/merger would create a distribution monopoly that controls 85 percent of the wholesale market in California.”

Given the current supply chain fiasco, it appears such buyouts can easily add to the current problem and “Make it difficult for craft brew producers to get onto their trucks, while under lock-down conditions the craft brew industry is already suffering great economic stress.”

Reports have noted that to address the demand for workers “some companies are looking for truckers abroad.” Sounds like what was proposed in 2008 with the shortage of nurses.

Yet, the Obama administration opted to train and “hire their own” and went against the idea of looking for nurses abroad. Had he followed the advised warning that enrollment in healthcare had yet to pick up with demand, need for nurses during COVID-19 may not have contributed to the pandemic.

However, in times of crises, hasn’t the US called on the National Guard whose responsibilities include responding to domestic emergencies? Consider the words of De Leon, coast committeeman with the ILWU, “This is a national problem, and not only national, this is a global problem.”

The Guard has been there and done that. “In the largest and swiftest response to a domestic disaster in history, the Guard deployed more than 50,000 troops in support of the Gulf States following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.”

What of the Army Reserve? Ten years ago they were given the authority to respond and stand “ready to support lead agencies for domestic emergencies…to order up to 200,000 members…for a continuous period of up to 365 days to provide assistance to either the federal government or an individual state…” No need for an Executive Order. Simply “at the request of the governor of a state.” Newsom, it’s time you step up to the plate.

Economic infrastructure of a rising number of unfilled jobs is not sustainable. With fewer citizens filling these jobs, companies and agencies can easily turn to newly arrived immigrants and refugees – cheap labor.

Consequences due to climate change and geopolitical conflicts may very well open the doors wider to Latin America, Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and newcomers from the Caribbean Sea and Afghanistan. Or, as has been reported 18 year olds. With the bad rap on student loans I’m sure they’ll flock to the road and ports.

BUT, as teenagers can’t be without their smartphone, being on the road will become dangerous for all of us, especially if they’re not adequately trained to drive a big rig, gas or biohazard truck. I don’t imagine companies will enforce their camera surveillance on them. Why? Because if they’re not texting, the kids are they’re likely smoking pot.

Outsourcing jobs easily transitioned to Insourcing of non-professionals. E-commerce masked the actual reason for gig economy low standard demand of drivers. Or, telemedicine use of non-licensed unregistered health reps.   

Law enforcement is unrecognizable.  But for a few true blue officers, Local and State governments turned “Blue Bloods” into Red Cross ambulance social drivers. Mayors and Governors have turned a proud profession into an embarrassment and failure.

Asia and World on US Waterfronts: It’s the External Economy Stupid

“But the great extent of the empire of China, the vast multitude of its inhabitants, the variety of climate, and consequently of productions in its different provinces, and the easy communication by means of water-carriage between the greater part of them, render the home market of that country of so great extent, as to be alone sufficient to support very great manufactures, and to admit of very considerable subdivisions of labour. The home market of China is, perhaps, in extent, not much inferior to the market of all the different countries of Europe put together.” – Adam Smith

China’s home market advantage? Gatekeepers working the networked supply chain. Aristotle once spoke of the “unmoved mover” many centuries and dynasties ago. China has speedily come along through its many roads, from its “Great Wall” to “China 2025.” Recall my June 2020 paper, “Primum Movens: World Merchant Supplying and Controlling the Chains.”

President Biden says, “Irony is people have more money now.” Sir, but less are working. Who do we have to thank for that? And you want to “lead the world again. Not a joke.”  Are you sure?

“Build Back Better?” Sir, who ya kidding? China world factory, your supplier, is already built. Now that’s the ironic joke on you.

Peter Drucker, in his 1994 paper, “Trade Lessons from the World Economy,” states, “Too many economists, politicians and segments of the public treat the external economy as something separate and safely ignored when they make policy for the domestic economy.” Three decades later, nothing has changed. 

CNBC reported that “during a virtual meeting Wednesday with Biden…the officials were granted anonymity in order to discuss private sector commitments that had yet to be made public.” Then the President publicly stated, “Buy American. Not other countries.”

Really, does that include Japan’s Toyota and US green port policy or “green coke” plan? Or, Australia’s Macquarie Infrastructure Partners $1.78 billion purchase of the Long Beach Container Terminal business in Southern California from China’s Orient Overseas (International) Ltd.

What the heck went down? See my paper Hydrogen & Microgrids: What LIES on US Waters? International Security Command Center Dangerous Ports?

Unregulated markets and an overlooked external economy have come to a head. Result? A waterfront bottleneck creating crises and opportunities for shippers price gauging.

NYC Railroad’s regulatory constraints coupled with competing forces from the automobile and airplane industry led to buyouts and bankruptcies. I would venture to say that we will continue to see “frictions and a mismatch between new technologies and old regulatory structures.” Government is known to walk at a flatfooted pace, especially in its attempt to catch up with green technology, a fast-moving runaway train.

Lessons from the Commodore? Cornelius Vanderbilt also known as “The Commodore” became the owner of the New York Central Railroad. NYC Railroad became central to the nation’s trade infrastructure facilitating transportation of people and goods OR impeding it. Vanderbilt, “embraced new technologies…and used them to compete…”

Let’s face the facts people, it’s easy to point to cars, airplanes, manufacturing plants, the BigOil&Gas (BOGs), etc., but thanks to commercialization, the biggest polluters are us demanding more stuff.

It seems that once again, “The Destruction of Economic FACTS” facilitate a block chain of runaway trains remotely controlled by a select number of conductors on a supply chain platform.

According to Hernando de Soto and Karen Weise, “Over the past twenty years, Americans and Europeans have quietly gone about destroying these facts. The very systems that could have provided markets and governments with the means to understand the global financial crisis- and to prevent another one- are being eroded…”

Warnings of another financial crisis endure. Now that’s a fact stupid.