The longshoreman strike has nothing to do with your local food and groceries from domestic sources. The job action affects imports from other countries and exports.
Technically speaking, it’s what labor has been fighting against for almost 50 years: our dependence on outsourcing.
The capitalists might not even lose any money during this event.
They might stop losses because the economy is terrible right now, so if you shut down for a week or two, your profit margins might go up, and aggregate labor costs for that period are down.
The essential issue with worldwide labor is adjusting to new industries and technology. We are in the same period as when we went from the horse and buggy to the automobile.
My term for this is Detroit Unionism, where workers demand that no one else can turn their screwdriver when, in the end, the screwdriver will not be needed anymore.
We are simultaneously in a technological and industrial revolution, with the added caveat of generational wealth transfer.
The more critical part of this strike has to do with prices.
Labor can’t keep raising wages because we’ll out-price our commodities, so there will have to be a breaking point for wage growth.
In no way does that mean workers need to be paid less. Other compensation models or working conditions must exist rather than continuously increasing salaries.
It might be a good idea to bite the bullet and begin rebuilding our internal industries to be more self-reliant while driving down costs … HiHo
