Two major sticking points are wages and automation. On wages, neither side has made their demands or offers public.
A statement from union president Harold Daggett suggested the union may be seeking a $5-an-hour increase in each year of a six-year agreement, raising the top hourly wage from $39 to $69 by the end of the contract.
Wage increases under the current contract, signed in 2018, were far more modest, with only $1-an-hour increases in four of the six years. That contract, which expires Monday, spanned the pandemic, when dockworkers stayed on the job, and months of soaring inflation.
The U.S. Maritime Alliance says its current offer includes "industry leading wage increases." West Coast dockworkers got 32% raises in their contract negotiations last year.
The union might be pricing themselves out of a job. Moving containers can be done by robot cranes. And robots work 24/7. No overtime, no holiday pay, and no benefits.
One of these docks will eventually start hiring only non union employees.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
