
The big problem word is DEMARCATION. This ruined the Uk heavy industry and the car building plants completely. What happens is simple. Each person who does a job will only do that job and that job alone.
Now this is nothing to do with the madness of Health and Safety which followed on in the Uk and is now ruining the remnants of any Uk industry which survived.
So to the West Coast. A container comes off the ship needing a crane driver. That driver needs a guide on the ground. They either need a lorry to take it out of the port or to move the container into a storage area for collection or opening and splitting into smaller delivery lots. This storage area is the problem area just now. These areas are run by the Longshoreman's Union who love DEMARCATION.
So the lorry comes in with a container. A forklift truck with a driver must take it off. There also needs to be a guy to tell the f/l driver where to put it. The Chinese think that a man should be given a chit to put the container in the right place,thus reducing by one man,the guide. The Chinese also think that there should be labourers who can drive a f/lift. Not a specialist driver.
F/l drivers suffer from neck strain leaning back and round and so on. As they earn over $100,000 they can afford to take days or a week off. So a lack of drivers backs everything up and the guides are standing round waiting on a driver while getting paid over $100,000 a year. Then the guides fall over and sprain an ankle blah blah you getting the picture??
They all get paid megabucks and when they are 'working' they do about 3 hours a shift!!! The Chinese don't like it. It is pretty silly when you look at it.
Yes there is a backlog. Ships are now using the Panama and Suez Canals and docking on the East Coast and in Houston. The Chinese own most of those Ports too. ! So they still have the income and can sit out a West Coast strike. When that's over and the Unions cave in,as thy must do, then the other Ports must fall into line as it will be a National agreement.
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