The dock worker’s strike as an example of greed inflation (ILA)

I am all for private sector unions and have written positively about them* but this guy running the dockworkers union sounds a little weird. First, from the New York Post, October 1:

Who is Harold Daggett, the union boss behind port strikes who earns more than $900,000 a year and once fought mob charges?

Fiery union boss Harold Daggett has long cast himself as a staunch advocate for workers, even as he lived in luxury, owned a yacht and drove a Bentley – and fought alleged ties to the mafia.

Wearing a polo shirt with a thick gold medallion around his neck, the 78-year-old Daggett, who as president of the International Longshoremen’s Association is leading the port strikes stretching from Maine to Texas, was prone to theatrical flourishes in a September interview as he prepared prepare for the strike.

“They’ll be soon,” Daggett said, grabbing his neck in a choking gesture. ‘I will paralyze you. I will paralyze you and you have no idea what that means. Nobody does that.”

Since last year, Daggett has threatened to close the 36 ports covered by his union if “cash-crazed” shipping companies refuse to raise wages and offer workers protections from industrial automation.

Meanwhile, Daggett — who worked at the ILA for 57 years and took over as president in 2011 — collected $728,000 in compensation from the ILA last year.

He collected another $173,000 as president emeritus of a local union chapter, according to Labor Department records.

He lives in a 7,136-square-foot home valued at $1.7 million on a 10-acre lot in Sparta, New Jersey, according to Zillow and NJ Property Records.

By comparison, his fellow union bosses at the AFL-CIO, Teamsters and autoworkers unions earn less than $300,000 a year, according to a Politico report.

Daggett previously owned the Obsession – a 75-foot yacht – and his family reportedly drove him around in a Bentley, according to The New York Times.

“Dude had more yachts than me!” billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk wrote in a post on X on Tuesday…

….MUCH MORE

And from the International Longshoreman’s Association YouTube channel:

A candid conversation with ILA President Harold J. Daggett on a wide range of important topics

*Most recent, August 2023:

I’m all for keeping workers ahead of inflation (and more) and I’m all for private sector unions – although like President Roosevelt I think public sector unions should be banned – when you have a situation like the United Auto Workers who are reducing the work week from 40 to 32 hours and (Detroit News, August 3):

UAW demands 46% wage increase in talks with Detroit Three automakers

You will experience some inflationary pressure….

*American presidency project:
112 – Letter on the Resolution of the Federation of Federal Employees against Strikes in the Federal Service, August 16, 1937

FDR Warned Us About Public Sector Unions – NYTimes.com
February 18, 2011

And September 2023:

Taking energy as an example, the rule of thumb that the old traders used was 10:1, that is, a twenty percent increase in the price of oil flowed through the economy and resulted in a 2% increase in the general price level.

Because the economy is so much less energy intensive than it was when those old guys counted on their thumbs, the ratio is probably 20:1, maybe even 25:1, but it’s still true. the recent oil price increase of around 30%, unless reversed quickly, means a 1% – 1.5% increase in the CPI.

And then you have pay increases. I’m all for private sector unions asking for as much as they think they can get. It was Samuel Gompers, union leader extraordinaire, who asked rhetorically what the workers wanted and replied, “More.”* but the math is the math and if the United Auto Workers get the 46% wage increase they are asking for, prices will rise.

Add a dozen other examples and that’s my reasoning for bastardizing Santayana with his observation “Only the dead have seen the end of the war”:
Only the dead have seen the end of inflation….