Stone Age Ports

Some union leaders are self-destructive idiots.

America's ports have fallen behind. Not a single one ranks in the top 50 worldwide.

A big reason is that dock unions stop innovation.

This fall, the International Longshoremen's Association shut down East and Gulf coast ports, striking for a raise and a ban on automation. They got the raise.

Now union president Harold Daggett says longshoremen will strike again in January if they don't get that ban on automation.

His statement in my new video makes it clear that he knows how badly his strike would damage other Americans.

"Guys who sell cars can't sell cars, because the cars ain't coming in off the ships. They get laid off," says Daggett. "Construction workers get laid off because materials aren't coming in. The steel's not coming in. The lumber's not coming in. They lose their job."

Obviously, labor leaders aren't necessarily "pro worker," says Mercatus Center economist Liya Palagashvili.

"They're saying, 'We don't care if these other jobs are destroyed as long as we get what we want.'"

Daggett is unusually clueless. He doesn't understand that a ban on automation will also hurt his members.

As Palagashvili puts it, "They'll save some jobs today, but they'll destroy a lot more jobs in the future."

That's because today's shippers have options. Daggett's union only controls East and Gulf coast ports. Shippers can deliver their products to ports that accept automation.

"We're going to see less activity in 'Stone Age' ports," says Palagashvili.

"Stone Age?"

"They want to ban automated opening and closing of port doors," she points out, requiring workers to pull heavy doors themselves.

Weirdly, the union boss makes his demands while also pointing out that dockworker jobs are dangerous.

"Very dangerous ... We've had 17 people killed in the last three years!"

That's terrible, but it's an argument for automation! Using machines instead of vulnerable humans protects human workers. Daggett's arguing against himself!

I see why he wouldn't agree to an interview.

"It's backwards," notes Palagashvili. "(If) you care about the safety of these workers, you should enhance their jobs and make them safer and better. And the only way you can do that is with technological advancements in automation."

Other countries have used automated cranes for years. They're 80% faster than the human-operated cranes in many American ports.

"The best ports," says Palagashvili, "are Asian and Middle Eastern ports. They allow for innovation and technological advancements. If you look at Chinese ports, they're actually sitting behind a computer and directing port activity through the screen. That's a better job."
"I bet there are fewer of them," I push back.

"Some port jobs will definitely be lost," she says, "but that's not a bad thing. Look at it historically; we had hundreds of thousands of blacksmiths and candlemakers and watchmakers."

Obviously, those and other jobs were destroyed by new technology. But unemployment didn't surge. New jobs emerged -- jobs people at the time didn't imagine: programmers, mechanics, electricians, medical technicians ...

That's capitalism's "creative destruction." It constantly creates new jobs. That makes most everyone richer.

The media rarely cover that, because it's a slow, non-exciting, good news story, and the new jobs appear in many different places. By contrast, when a factory closes, the union assembles the media, and we report the tragic story about workers losing their jobs.

"That reporter doesn't follow up with the worker two years later," says Palagashvili, "but research does, and research shows that that worker gets a new job."

"On average, (a) better job," I note.

"Better jobs," agrees Palagashvili, "and higher wages."

Higher wages because innovation allows workers to accomplish more.

"Bulldozers and crane trucks made construction industry workers better off," says Palagashvili, "and the real wages of those construction workers increase."

Daggett and his union just don't get it.

They fight to keep American ports dangerous and inefficient.

That will hurt their own workers and, eventually, themselves.

Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom. He is the author of "Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media."

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