I'm sorry, but at some point unions have to face the modern free market, and after looking at both web sites I have come to a few conclusions:

- $150,000 (plus benefits!) is ridiculous for a dock worker, and most of the problems in this situation are the result of market forces trying to correct this, i.e. there are about three thousand skilled and educated people who would be willing to take any one of those jobs and do it just as well for half the money, not to mention technology which could replace workers for much less money.

It seems to me that they command this kind of wage because they can destroy the company. No other reason. This isn't a market wage, it's blackmail.

There is no comparison with an entepreneur who builds an idea into a multimillion dollar company. It's not like I can pull fifty guys off the street to replace Bill Gates. The CEOs who make millions do so because they help their company make billions. What exactly does a dockworker do? Move pallets? Empty ships? Maybe there's a lot more to it. Anyone know?

The union is not interested in the profits of the business, or even if the business runs at all, as long as somehow they can deliver the salaries and benefits. Good Lord, look at their website. I haven't seen such a rat's nest of hardcore Marxism since the '60s. If I hadn't known better I would have thought it was a parody. I thought all these guys were long gone.

It's painfully obvious that their agenda overrules any reasonable compromise here. PMA is not looking to cut everyone's salary, just to find some cheaper alternatives for some jobs. And at some point the PMA will have to fold, since the union wields political power much too great for it.