Time runs short to avert longshoremen’s strike

Time runs short to avert longshoremen’s strike

NEW YORK (AP) - In just a few days, a walkout by thousands of dock workers could bring commerce to a near standstill at every major port from Boston to Houston, potentially delivering a big blow to retailers and manufacturers still struggling to find their footing in a weak economy.

More than 14,000 longshoremen are threating to go on strike Sunday - a wide-ranging work stoppage that would immediately close cargo ports on the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico to container ships.

The 15 ports involved in the labor dispute move more than 100 million tons of goods each year, or about 40 percent of the nation’s containerized cargo traffic. Losing them to a shutdown, even for a few days, could cost the economy billions of dollars.

“If the port shuts down, nothing moves in or out,” said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation. And when the workers do return, “it’s going to take time to clear out that backlog, and we don’t know how long that it’s going to take.” SOURCE

Once upon a time, MANY years ago, labor unions may have been a necessary thing, jobs paid very little, working conditions were horrible and the bosses were more like slave drivers than management, but those days are ancient history.

I am NOT, nor have I ever been a member of ANY union, and I know the old adage about ‘never say never’, but I NEVER will be a member of a labor union. I believe that unions have long outlived their usefulness and are nothing more than a branch of organized crime that has no compunction with using ANY means, up to and including physical violence and murder, to accomplish their agenda.

Historically, violence and labor unions go hand in hand. Here are a few examples of union violence. SOURCE:

1986 - During protests by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547 against a non-unionized workforce getting a contract, picketers threatened and assaulted workers, spat at them, sabotaged equipment, and shot guns near workers. In 1999, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the union had engaged in “ongoing acts of intimidation, violence, destruction of property”, awarding the plaintiff $212,500 in punitive damages.

1990 - on the first day of The New York Daily News strike, delivery trucks were attacked with stones and sticks, and in some cases burned, with the drivers beaten. Strikers then started threatening newsstands with arson, or stole all copies of the Daily News and burned them in front of the newsstands. James Hoge, publisher of the Daily News, alleged that there had been some 700 serious acts of violence. The New York Police Department claimed knowledge of 229 incidents of violence. Criminal charges under the Hobbs Act were declined, however, citing the aforementioned Enmons case.

1993 - Eddie York was murdered for crossing a United Mine Workers (UMW) picket line at a coal mine in Logan County, West Virginia, on July 22, 1993. Like the 1990 NY Daily News strike, criminal charges under the Hobbs Act were declined, with the FBI and Justice Department citing the Enmons case.

1997 - On August 7, 1997, teamsters Orestes Espinosa, Angel Mielgo, Werner Haechler, Benigno Rojas, and Adrian Paez beat, kicked, and stabbed a UPS worker (Rod Carter) who refused to strike, after Carter received a threatening phone call from the home of Anthony Cannestro, Sr., president of Teamsters Local 769.

2011 - It was reported on September 9, 2011 that members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) frightened security guards, dumped grain, and vandalized property belonging to EGT, LLC, over a labor dispute. No one was hurt, and no one had been arrested at the time the incident was reported. District Judge Ronald Leighton later issued a preliminary injunction against the ILWU citing their reported behavior.

2012 - Union workers protesting right-to-work legislation in Lansing, Michigan destroyed a tent run by Americans for Prosperity. People were inside the tent but managed to escape before the collapse. Additionally, hot dog stand operator Clinton Tarver, a popular vendor around the Capital area who was hired to provide catering for AFP, lost his equipment, condiments, coolers, and food in the collapse. According to Tarver (an African American), union workers, who had incorrectly assumed he was supporting AFP, called Tarver an “Uncle Tom nigger”. A union worker also punched conservative comedian and Fox News contributor Stephen Crowder, resulting in a chipped tooth and a minor cut on the forehead. Another worker threatened to kill Crowder with a gun.

Know this; a huge dockworkers strike WILL be violent and with the United States facing a *fiscal cliff* and massive challenges in the world markets, this potential strike could be the catalyst the Obama regime is looking for in an effort to declare martial law.

A spark is all it will take, ANY excuse will suffice and Obama has strong Union support from the likes of the Teamsters, SEIU and many others.

Labor unions, and their members, embrace Socialism. It’s not just me that believes that either. Read this: Unions: The History of Their Socialist Agenda — Their hand in hand socialist march with the Democrat party in American History.

If you’re still a PRO Union believer at this point I am guessing I am on your LIST of right-wing Conservatives that you would like to take out back and *tune up*.

Bring it!

12/28/2012 - Edit to add @ 11:16:05: Deal struck to delay potential port strike - Houston Chronicle