Early this morning, the AP confirmed worst fears and ran a story headlined, “
Dockworkers at ports from Maine to Texas go on strike, a standoff risking new shortages.” It’s another Bidenic disaster; the Cabbage in Chief could have stopped the strike, but said he prefers to let the collective bargaining process work itself out.
Dockworkers, also called longshoremen, are the burly guys who run the big machines unloading containers from ships and putting them on trucks for delivery all across the United States. They are altogether a sweaty and sometimes smelly group of hard-working Americans who play a crucial role in the supply chain, about which we have painfully learned so much over the last few years.
The now-official strike involves 45,000 East Coast longshoremen —at 36 ports along the Gulf and East Coast of the United States— who went on strike starting at midnight last night over a variety of unmet demands related to pay, working conditions, and job security. For some reason they don’t want to be replaced by
robot longshoremen, which sometimes break down but never go on strike.
The trouble is the strike threatens to halt the movement of billions of dollars worth of goods including furniture, paper, manufacturing components, medications, produce, vehicles and virtually everything shipped overseas.
Biden told reporters he would
not intervene, no matter how destructive and no matter what a bad time it is for another supply chain breakdown. "It's collective bargaining. I don't believe in Taft-Hartley," the Cabbage told reporters. Biden’s smug but clueless Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo had no idea what is going on, she said she “hasn’t focused on” the problem:
CLIP: Clueless Secretary of Commerce sounds off on port strike (0:13).
With the stroke of a pen, Biden could have pushed off any strike for 80 days — until
after the election. Why would he not take advantage of that reprieve? Principles? (Okay, stop laughing.)
It’s awkward timing, what with a hurricane recovery in the works. Most commenters think serious problems will not start immediately, since suppliers have known the strike was potentially coming for months and, in theory, had time to stock up. We’ll see.
Helenic Multiplier; hurricane updates as leaders emerge; Biden's massive relief package; Conyers chemical fire; UN's woke globalist Pact for the Future; dockworker strike; silly happy video; more.
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