I know, you have to take the traditional viewpoint, with Evil Management eating the babies of union members with a dash of horseradish, but keep in mind the shipping companies aren't exactly getting rich off of this.

There are legitimate issues on both sides. I posted the management position in the original post, and one can look through the link for other explanations of their position. The union, once you get past all the Che crap on their pages, also has some real issues about safety and the like.

Other issues, like new technology and outsourcing don't hold up as well as legitimate grievances. The union grouses that the PMA is trying to get other personnel and advanced technology to do jobs currently occupied by union members. Now why would they do that? Just to be Evil? Or maybe because almost any alternative is cheaper?

Union dockworkers aren't exactly living off Beefaroni. Members working the docks earn on average $80,000 to $158,000 (!), including premiums and overtime. They also have fully paid medical benefits and generous pension contributions.

I dare say this is more than you make at the library. It's more than I make now. It's more than I made at my highest salary position as a company founder and rocket engineer. Hell, it's more than the CEO of our company made.

It would seem to be painfully obvious to any reasonable observer that this pay scale is just a bit high for a dock worker, and it is also obvious that the same quality work could be cheerfully done by equally skilled people for far less money. So there is constant market pressure to outsource brought about by union workers pricing themselves off the top of the scale. The union, which feel that a company's only reason for existence is to pay workers, naturally doesn't feel this way. Their goal is to employ as many workers as possible (union only of course) at as high a salary as possible. There are no other relevant issues. Needless to say, given the philosophy of the leadership, they are less than sympathetic to the idea of market forces affecting their business.