As East and Gulf Coast ports begin to operate normally again, one of the nation’s top entrepreneurs is facing a “trouble” with demands from union workers.
“The problem with the East Coast ports is that they’re too old, they’re too inefficient,” Kevin O’Leary, president of O’Leary Ventures and “Shark Tank” star, said on “Varney & Company.” Friday.
“And when you start comparing them with other international ports like Singapore and other Asian ports,” he added, “we are not doing much compared to them. And that’s very bad for productivity.”
US dockworkers returned to work Friday morning reach a temporary agreement With employers on better salary offers.
The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), which represents 45,000 striking workers, said the union and the USMX have reached a tentative agreement on wages and the master contract by June 15 to return to the bargaining table to negotiate all others. It has been agreed to extend it till January 2025. “Outstanding Issues.”
Fox Business reported that workers accepted a 62% pay increase, effective immediately.
But ILA’s statement on the tentative deal did not mention anything about it. Security from technology and automation,
A statement Tuesday from the ILA said it is “against any form of automation – full or semi – that replaces jobs or historic work functions. We do not tolerate the loss of our members’ jobs and livelihoods due to automation.” Will not accept.
“There have been a lot of studies on automation in ports, both domestically and internationally,” O’Leary said. “We just have to let automation go where it goes because there’s no evidence on the East and West Coast that if you automate and make it more efficient, more productive, that has any impact on wages “
“In fact, it could even increase the real wages paid to workers who know how to use these robotic systems so that they become more engineer-oriented,” Mr. Amazing” added. “It helps job creation and helps the value of wages increase.”
Eric Hoplin, CEO of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), echoed O’Leary’s argument and said on “Mornings with Maria” on Tuesday that the union’s Automation demands are “unrealistic”.
While major ports around the world such as Shanghai, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Singapore have adopted automated cranes and vehicles in ports, he said, “we are already three decades behind.”
The three-day long port strike has raised fears of disruption in the US supply chain.
An analysis by JPMorgan estimated that the daily cost of the strike by East and Gulf Coast port workers would cost the US economy between $3.8 billion and $4.5 billion per day as operations are slowed.
Fox Business’s Eric Revell and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
