As the main union of East Coast dockworkers (ILA) goes to strike, billions of dollars of goods will be stranded in major ports like New York-New Jersey & Houston. The ILA, whose boss took home over $900,000 last year from union dues, is now backed by President Biden in the labor dispute even though it may cost the economy up to $5 billion a day.
Biden's decision to back the union bosses means that the supposedly neutral referees in the National Labor Relations Board, a creature of the administrative state, have already picked sides to the detriment of American workers & consumers.
According to the World Bank's 2023 Container Port Performance Index, which measures efficiency, the US does not have a *single* port that is ranked in the top 50 globally. This is no coincidence. While ports from the Netherlands to Australia work to automate to great success, union contracts limit the ability of ports to adopt technology that enhances efficiency.
This isn't new. Back in the 1950s, leaders in the same union opposed containerization - a major innovation that ushered in an era of global trade, reduced the cost to unload a boat from about $6/ton to 16¢/ton, and made dockworkers' jobs safer, too.
Luddism isn't unique to the dockworkers' unions. Recall the Hollywood strikes over streaming technology in 2023 that have left a negative impact on the industry: unemployment in the film and TV industry is now roughly 3x the national average.
Actual technological advances can *enhance* the well-being of American workers or consumers. But union bosses' efforts to coddle workers by limiting innovation leaves the whole country worse off as a result. And the National Labor Relations Board is ultimately responsible for coddling union bosses who send their workers on strike.
The right answer is the same one we need for the rest of the nanny state: SHUT IT DOWN.
