America will face Riots, Marches, and Revolution

[MinutemanCO]

I have a daughter about Autumn's age. This story and the reality that she was killed for a bicycle, a senseless and barbaric act, just floors me. I know that I am capable of defending my family when I'm around. When I'm not there with them, that's what bothers me.

[vector7]

Companion Thread: Progressive ‘Mission Accomplished,’ Now on to Phase II — Communism

Unions are organizing...
Walmart Black Friday Strike Being Organized Online For Stores Across U.S. (VIDEO)

Posted: 11/09/2012 7:38 pm EST Updated: 11/09/2012 7:42 pm EST



Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving regarded as one of the biggest shopping days of the year, may be dramatically different this year.

Organizers are planning a nationwide strike against Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, and are banking on a new strategy: online organizing.

Labor organizers are working with social action nonprofit Engage Network as well as corporate watchdog nonprofit Corporate Action Network to pull off what they are calling a "viral" -- meaning national and spreading online -- strike.

Walmart workers interested in joining the day of action are directed to this website, either to find a store near them with an organized strike or to "adopt an event" at a store near them.

Brian Young, cofounder of the Corporate Action Network, said on a conference call coordinated by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union Thursday, that organizers cannot cover the roughly 4,000 Walmarts across the country, but enabling self-appointed leaders online has widened and decentralized the campaign.

Supporters can also sponsor a striking worker, who may be losing wages in order to strike, by donating grocery gift cards. The campaign has raised more than $13,500 worth of donations toward grocery gift cards since Oct. 15 -- a figure that doesn't include significant funds raised through mailed-in checks, Jamie Way, of the UFCW, told HuffPost.

The campaign is also mobilizing strikers and supporters through a Facebook app, multiple Facebook pages, a Tumblr and Twitter with the hashtag #walmartstrikers.

"This online mobilization, in addition to traditional on-the-ground organizing, has allowed the campaign to reach into the rural corners of the country that might have otherwise been overlooked," Marianne Manilov, cofounder of the Engage Network, said on the conference call.

She pointed to a group of renegade workers in Oklahoma who mobilized in October. "A completely unorganized set of workers in Oklahoma spontaneously went out on strike and held their own type of action without any organizer or … connection with the broader organization," she said. "This is what organizing looks like in the age of Occupy."

The outreach leading up to Black Friday follows a series of unprecedented actions taken by Walmart workers against their employer and working conditions. In October, for the first time in the company's 50-year history, more than 70 workers at multiple Los Angeles-area Walmart stores walked off the job, even though their jobs are not protected by an official union. The strike had a ripple effect, causing strikes in 12 other cities, in large part through online organizing.

The success of these strikes, as well as one over the summer touted as the largest ever protest against the company, and a six-day pilgrimmage of warehouse workers in September, would not have been possible without Facebook, Twitter and other web sites, Young said.

"Making Change at Walmart," which organized the demonstrations and is a campaign affiliated with the UFCW union, has over 25,000 supporters on Facebook.
Although it does not officially represent Walmart workers, OUR Walmart, organized by the Making Change campaign, acts like a union to fight for the rights of Walmart workers. OUR Walmart, which was founded last year with 100 members, now has over 14,000 supporters on Facebook.

Corey Parker, a Walmart worker from Mississippi, said on the conference call that he became active with OUR Walmart after finding out about it through a HuffPost article on Facebook. Now, he has mobilized workers at his store to strike on Black Friday because, he said, he realized that "not being able to make a living was not just an issue at my store."

Adding fuel to movement, Walmart announced Thursday that it will kick off its Black Friday sale at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, its earliest start ever.

"Lots and lots of Walmart workers are going to be forced to not have Thanksgiving because they're going to be preparing all day for the busiest shopping day of the year," Dan Schlademan, director of Making Change at Walmart, said on the conference call. "This essentially cancels Thanksgiving for hundreds of thousands of workers."

"It's not like Walmart is financially hurting. It's not like they're not making unbelievable sums of money. The price of this is really decimating an important family day in our country."

But Walmart spokesman Steven Restivo said of the sale, "Last year, our highest customer traffic was during the 10 p.m. hour and, according to the National Retail Federation, Thanksgiving night shopping has surged over the past three years."

"Most of our stores are open 24 hours and, historically, much of our Black Friday preparations have been done on Thanksgiving, which is not unusual in the retail industry," he said, adding that the strikes planned for Black Friday, will not "have any impact on our business."

Regarding the action over the last few months, Restivo said, "While the opinions expressed by this group don’t represent the views of the vast majority of more than 1.3 million Walmart associates in the U.S., when our associates bring forward concerns, we listen."

In September, dozens of Walmart-contracted warehouse workers in Southern California's Inland Empire walked off the job and went on a six-day, 50-mile pilgrimage to protest working conditions and retaliation for speaking up.

More than a month later, the warehouse company NFI responded to some of the strikers' working condition requests. "Just in the last week, we've seen the warehouse operators scrambling to replace broken and unsafe equipment, they've rented fans to increase ventilation, and they've added more water coolers," Elizabeth Brennan, communications director for Warehouse Workers United, said on the conference call.

However, the strikers who returned to work have continued to face retaliation, many times getting their hours cut from 35 down to eight, she said. Some of these warehouse workers will join striking Walmart workers on Black Friday, Brennan said.

Excluding the retaliation, organizers hope to see that type of positive response after Black Friday. And with an online system open to anyone who wants to start a strike in his or her local Walmart, Manilov hopes both the demonstration and response will be broad-reaching.

"This is one of the first labor campaigns to really fully embrace the potential of online-to-offline labor organizing," she said. "As this captures fire, its potential is limitless."

Photos from the first-ever Walmart strike, when more than LA 70 workers walked off the job in Oct.:

[American Patriot]

sheesh.....

These fuckers think they are gonna win.

[Ryan Ruck]

Haven't they?

[American Patriot]

Nope...

What I mean by this is; they think they will continue this socialist take over. They might have won this election, but they have not won the battle for America.

*I* am not going to stand around and let it happen. I know a lot of others won't either.

I've got a few things up my sleeve yet.... and I won't rule out pulling some of the bullshit they pull either, including whatever I need to do to get people to start standing up against these fucks.

Have you guys noticed lately commericals on the television for the IBEW? International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.... they are, I believe under the SEIU and our building is full of them. They all work for one company. I happen to know that when the cuts come, they are the first going away... I also happen to know that a lot of contractors are nuking the fucking unions first.

Let them sue.

Without jobs, they won't be contributing much to the income of unions. In two years the Unions will be broke.. and if we have our way, broken.

[Ryan Ruck]

Congressman: Greece-Like ‘Day Of Reckoning’ Complete With ‘Riots’ To Hit America Soon If Country Keeps Going Down Same Path

November 11, 2012

Louisiana Republican Rep. John Fleming told The Daily Caller that, ever since President Barack Obama’s re-election last Tuesday, he has been advising Americans to play it safe financially because he believes the economy — and the state of the country — may soon get much worse.

Fleming said he’s telling concerned constituents and business owners to “not extend yourselves in debt, make sure that you pay off things, don’t get into debt with credit cards, stay as liquid as possible. Don’t take risk, and don’t get into debt. You need to stay less vulnerable economically over the next two to four years, in hopes that the economy will sort itself out, and that Washington will get its act together.”

Fleming said he thinks the presidential election was hardly a mandate for Obama’s liberal policies, or a populist rejection of Republicans’ conservative ideals.

“I think always, when you have a candidate promising free stuff, and another promising less stuff or nothing, the one who promises more is always going to have the advantage,” he said. “The problem is that we’ve been doing that for about five decades, and it’s getting us into serious trouble.”

Ultimately, Fleming said he believes the rising national debt is analogous to “reaching into the next generation” and “taxing kids who aren’t even born yet,” and must be addressed. “That’s really what we’re dealing with,” he said, adding that if it isn’t fixed, it’ll “backfire on the American people.”

After Obama’s re-election, Fleming said now it looks like “the American people chose to continue down that road, despite the fact that we have other countries ahead of us, like Greece, that are suffering massively.”

“It looks like we’re going to have to go through the same or similar pain [as Greece] to get real reforms,” Fleming said.

If America doesn’t band together to halt America’s fiscal woes, Fleming said, “what’s going to happen is there’s going to be a day of reckoning that gets into a serious situation where we have to make tough choices.”

“Both Republicans and Democrats are going to have to do that [turn the country around],” Fleming said. “What I fear is we’re going to be too late, and we’re going to run into a Greece-like situation,where we have riots and unemployment levels are up around 11 percent. That’s what we’ve been trying to avoid.”

Ultimately, Fleming said he thinks President Obama should be the one who compromises with House Republicans – not the other way around.

“I think that we should not compromise,” he said. “We need to hold to what’s important, because the real danger for this country is our debt and deficit and the impact it’s having on the economy. Just because the president was re-elected – and certainly many of the things that he believes in and wants to do, the private sector and economy doesn’t agree with that. We just had a number of companies announce layoffs as a result of Obama being re-elected. The stock market didn’t take the news very well. I’m getting calls already from private business owners telling me that they are pulling their fins in, they’re reducing their debt, and they’re just going to go on cash flow – they’re not going to grow or invest or hire.”

Fleming is upset with House Speaker John Boehner for promising via an interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer that the House GOP will seek a “comprehensive approach” to immigration reform in the wake of Tuesday’s election.

Fleming said he’s upset Boehner made such a promise without talking to House Republicans about it first. Obama raked in the Hispanic vote en masse over Mitt Romney and Republicans on Tuesday.

“There has been no discussion about comprehensive immigration reform – which is really, as we all know, a code for some degree or another, amnesty,” Fleming told TheDC. “There’s been no discussion in the last two years that I can recall – no discussion on that issue.”

“On amnesty and immigration, the kneejerk response here – and you even see it from some of the conservatives like Charles Krauthammer – is to say ‘look, we need to start pandering to those people,’” Fleming said. “The problem with doing that is we’ll never be able to compete with Democrats when it comes to offering things up. Many things that have happened since [Richard] Nixon [was president] have been to help certain groups, and then they came back and voted in Democrats. We’ll never win that race pandering to specific groups.”

“On the other hand, if you really look at the data, and I’ve been looking at it this morning, what you really see is Hispanics and Latinos, just like all other groups in this country, both immigrant and otherwise, if they’re lower-skilled or no-skilled, they build local economies based on certain government programs, such as Section 8 Housing, the SNAP program or food stamps, and so forth,” Fleming continued.

“Then, they often try to go and parlay that with additional work – it may be black market work, it may be non-taxed. That’s the way they work their opportunities. The problem with that is we see less tax revenue and less stable employment and we see more people on the safety net system. That’s part of our problem. We’ve got a bigger and bigger cost coming down the pike. This year, we had over a trillion dollars just in means-tested welfare programs.”

“If we approach immigration from the idea that ‘we’re going to talk amnesty first, and control the borders later,’ then we’re just going to continue to have the same problems we’ve had for six decades,” Fleming added. “So we think – and actually the data show that immigrants also believe this – that we should control our borders first before we talk about amnesty. I don’t think trying to do more in the way of giving things to people – we’ll never compete in that way, people will always default to the Democratic Party when it comes to those things.”

Fleming said he thinks the right way for conservatives and Republicans to attract Hispanics is to hit them with the right message they sell to all Americans: economic freedom and principle of limited government.

“I do think we should be messaging to our Latino and Hispanic friends, saying that ‘what we really need to do is build the economy,’ and that way they’ll be taxpayers, rather than using the safety net system,” he said. “And, that applies to all groups – not just Latinos. I think that, both legally and illegally, immigrants come here for opportunity.”

“Somehow, we’ve got to reach out to folks and communicate to them that if we continue this – and it won’t be very long now, with the direction we’re going – then those opportunities are going to evaporate,” Fleming added. “How are we going to provide the safety nets for people, for the disabled? You just can’t keep doing this forever. I think what’s going to change this is not the Republican Party saying, ‘Okay, we’re going to get on the pandering bandwagon, and we’re going to start promising things, too.’”

Fleming said he expects more conservatives in the House like himself to sway Boehner and push the House to the right next year. He doesn’t, however, think Boehner is any danger of losing his job in the 113th Congress.

“I don’t think that Speaker Boehner is in danger of losing his speakership. I think he has strong support, and I plan to support Speaker Boehner,” Fleming said. “The thing you need to understand about Speaker Boehner is he’s kind of a numbers person – he’s sort of a bean counter. He’s less ideological than I am, and maybe even some others in leadership. So, he’s got to where the 218 votes are. That’s what leads me to speak out – to let him know that we didn’t read this election as any kind of mandate to increase taxes or to grant amnesty to illegal aliens. We didn’t read it that way at all.”

“I do think he [Boehner] is under immense pressure,” Fleming added. “Even the conservative Charles Krauthammer came out and said we need to rethink amnesty, and I wouldn’t think that’s a total misinterpretation of the lopsided victory that Obama had with Hispanics.”

While Obama is entering a second term, Fleming added that he thinks the House GOP is in a unique position with more leverage than it’s had for the past two years.

“The reason I think that is that I believe a decision was made by Democrats when we took the House that they were going to ice government – they were going to keep things status quo, get nothing done, so that we would look feckless and unable to get anything done as Republicans.”

If that worked, Fleming said, “we would have been blamed, and the American people would have put Democrats back in charge, and they’d get Nancy Pelosi back in as speaker so the president could have two more years of control of Congress. I think that that didn’t work – obviously it didn’t work, though not for their trying. They gained probably around 10 seats, and they spent more money than we did at the end of the day.”

[American Patriot]

The answer to this is simple.

"We will NOT go over the so-called fiscal cliff IF spending is limited. Period."

[Malsua]

The answer to this is simple.

"We will NOT go over the so-called fiscal cliff IF spending is limited. Period."

Right now we're even with the 20th floor, outside the building on the way down. So far, everything is going good. No amount of spending or not spending will make the impact any less catastrophic. In fact, 1 inch before we hit, some will still be proclaiming how we're going to pull out of it and soar.

[American Patriot]

lol

You're probably right.

[Ryan Ruck]

Some of the Black Friday violence that occurred. If folks will do this over stuff they want, just imagine when it comes to something they need like food or water...

Mesquite Police Break Up Fight At Town East Mall On Black Friday

November 23, 2012

Video | News | Weather | SportsFri Nov 23 09:00:17 PST 2012
Mesquite police break up fight at Town East Mall on Black Friday

Violence interrupted Black Friday shopping at the Town East Mall in Mesquite as police broke up a fight and subdued a suspected shoplifter with a Taser. view full article



Violence interrupted Black Friday shopping at the Town East Mall as police broke up a fight and subdued a suspected shoplifter with a Taser.

“Next thing you know, other cops start running the other way. It was crazy. There was something over here and, I don’t know, it was just so much,” said Gloria Lira, who was shopping and witnessed the incident..

Mall spokesman Chad Hastings said the incident in the mall was handled swiftly by in-house security and the Mesquite Police Department. While some witnesses reported hearing gunshots, Hastings denied that, saying that sound was furniture being thrown. It's not clear how the fight began.

He said the incident was handled wiftly and referred to it as a “small scuffle.”

“Police responded immediately and took the perpetrators or individuals into custody and back to business as usual at Town East Mall.,” Hastings said.

Lira recorded one incident with her cell-phone as police detained a shoplifting suspect. In the two minute video, police order the suspect to put his hands behind him. The sound of a Taser being used is also audible.

Everything transpired around 2 a.m. By 5 a.m. Friday morning, things appeared to be back to normal. There were no reports of serious injuries. It’s unclear exactly how many people were detained –– Mesquite police have yet to comment.

“Everybody was scared; I was too,” Lira recalled. “Suddenly you just start seeing a stampede of people saying, oh they have guns- get away-they’re about to shoot, and this and that.”

Walmart Black Friday 2012: 2 Shot In Tallahassee, Uncontrollable Crowds In Moultrie, Ga.

November 23, 2012

Tallahassee, Fla. police are interviewing witnesses outside of a Walmart where two people were shot on Black Friday 2012.

A police spokesman says the victims were being treated Friday at an area hospital for wounds that weren't considered life-threatening. It wasn't immediately known whether the shooting happened inside or outside the store or whether it was related to Black Friday shopping.

No arrests have been made.

Meanwhile in Moultrie, Ga., a Walmart store there experienced craziness of an uncontrollable crowd, though there are no immediate reports of injuries. (See a video of the incident at the end of this story.)

Customers can be seen at the Moultrie Walmart scrambling to get the Straight Talk Unlimited Plan for wireless offering unlimited talk, text and data. Walmart released the following statement in response:

"The safety of our customers and associates is always a top priority for us. We prepared each of our 4,000 stores for Black Friday with a specific plan unique to each store to manage the crowds as they took advantage of our in-store specials.

Our store in Moultrie included six police officers on site plus an outside service to help manage the crowd.

Despite this presence, one particular item briefly created excitement among our customers that led to the images on the video.

We're glad everyone was okay. This was unfortunate, isolated and not reflective of the safe and successful events at our stores across the country."

In Tallahassee, however, it appears the shooting may not be related to shopping, though the shooting definitely disturbed shoppers.

“We’re cooperating with the Tallahassee Police Department and working with them in hopes of identifying who did this,” said Randy Hargrove, Walmart company spokesman. “The safety of our customers and associates is always a top priority for us.”

Hargrove said the last Walmart Black Friday sale ended at 7 a.m.

Kollet Probst said she had finished much of her holiday shopping when she returned to the Walmart on Apalachee Parkway to make a return.

She said she was waiting in the customer service department when a crowd of people came running into the store from the parking lot. Shots started going off, and customers ducked for cover.

"Everybody started trying to find a place to hide," she said.

Probst said she and other frightened shoppers huddled in a restroom and tried to call 911. Minutes later they emerged and saw two shooting victims, one woman and one man, who were being tended to by police near the front of the store.

She said the incident began outside of the store and the shots were mostly fired near the atrium by the store's front entrance.

"I don't think that it had anything to do with merchandise," she said. "It was so odd and unprovoked that it just doesn't seem like it was a Black Friday mob."

Probst, 30 of Tallahassee, said she lives about a mile from the store and is worried that a gunman remains on the loose.

At approximately 12:30 p.m. Tallahassee Police received a call to respond to the Walmart located at 3535 Apalachee Parkway, said Tallahassee Police Department spokesman David Northway.

Police discovered two victims suffering from non-life threatening gunshot wounds. They have been transported to a local hospital where they are being treated.

No further details about the victims were provided at this time.

[Ryan Ruck]

Oakland Crime Rate Soaring As City Loses Officers

November 28, 2012

Burglaries are up a startling 43 percent in Oakland this year compared to last, part of an ever-growing crime problem in the city.

According to the latest numbers from the Oakland Police Department, more than 11,000 homes, cars or businesses have been broken into so far this year – translating to about 33 burglaries a day. The most popular targets have been cars with more than 5,700 burglarized so far this year.

One of the most likely reasons for the sharp uptick in crime – city officials said they believe it’s the gradual loss of police officers from the force.

The city could be down to a little more than 600 officers by February, which would be 200 fewer than in 2008. Even with another 40 expected to graduate from Police Academy, they will be rookies and there is already talk of trying to contract with outside agencies for support.

Police Chief Howard Jordan said his department is trying to reassess its crime prevention efforts in light of the staff shortages.

“The fact that we haven’t been able to address some of the proactive things that we should be doing as an agency is really hampering our efforts to address some of the crime problems,” he said. “But with that being said, what I’ve been tasked to do and asked my commanders to do is look at some of the ways for us to free up officers in order to give them time to be proactive. I’m also reducing some of the positions in certain administrative functions in the department so that we can add more staff to our street level enforcement teams.”

“There’s just people that are taking matters into their own hands and resolving their issues through violence. I think the proliferation and easy availability of firearms in this city is something that is a real problem for us,” Jordan said. “Coupled with the fact that there is all-out greed and disrespect for each other and each other’s personal safety between young people.”

[Ryan Ruck]

According To Google Trends, What Is More Popular Than "Ammo"? "Bulk Ammo"

November 30, 2012

While "Fiscal Cliff" may be having its 15-minutes of fame - a la "Honey Boo Boo" or "Sneezing Panda" - there is one thing that has consistently been more and more searched in the last eight years. According to Google Trends, internet users are skipping just plain old simple "ammo" as a search query, and in a tried and true American tradition, confirm that size matters. The size of the ammo order that is, as can be confirmed by the following chart showing queries for "bulk ammo". What goes without saying, are the wavelike periodicities of the quantized jumps higher in popularity at select times over the past decade: they just happen to aggregate around a very specific event taking place each November every 4 years. At this rate by November 2016 we are going to need a bulkier chart...

[American Patriot]

This tells me that the "fiscal cliff" (which is actually a bullshit lie to convince GOP members to cave in and isn't real anyway) is a foregone conclusion on the part of those who vote with Second Amendment rights.

That is to say, they don't give a shit about a "fiscal cliff" if they are well armed and have ammo for when the shit hits the fan.

[Ryan Ruck]

Lock Your Doors & Load Your Guns: Calif. City Attorney Tells Residents to Be Self-Reliant Following Cuts to Police Force

November 30, 2012

The bankrupt city of San Bernardino, Calif. is so cash-strapped it has been forced to slash public safety budgets just to stay afloat. That includes downsizing the police force.

During a city council meeting this week, Jim Penman, the city Attorney of San Bernardino, told residents to “lock your doors and load your guns” because they will need to start protecting themselves due to the diminishing number of cops on the streets, CBS Los Angeles reports. It is the perfect example of why self-reliance is so important — because when the government can’t protect you anymore, you have be able to protect yourself and your family.

Penman has been criticized by some for his brutally honest statement but he is standing by it.

“You should say what you mean and mean what you say,” he said.

The comments came after about 150 concerned residents attended a city council meeting to express their concerns about a number of recent crimes in the area, including the murder of an elderly woman last week.

“Well, if I remember right, I told them to ‘lock their doors and load their guns,’” Penman recounted.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/video...clipId=8016351

Councilwoman Wendy McCommack said she could tell the “swell of frustration was coming over a lot of folks” at the meeting.

The city is working through bankruptcy and financial woes have forced San Bernardino to lay off about 80 police officers. As a result, police response times are delayed and people are not happy about it.

“Let’s be honest, we don’t have enough police officers,” Penman explained. “We have too many criminals living in this city. We have had 45 murders this year…that’s far too high for a city of this size.”

The city attorney urged people to be responsible but said it is important for people to be able to protect themselves and their families.

“I’m not advocating that people go out, who don’t have any training, and buy firearms. I certainly strongly caution anyone who has children at home not to have a loaded gun in the house,” he added.

“San Bernardino has seen a 50 percent increase in murders this year comported to 2011,” CBS Los Angeles reports.

[American Patriot]

Guess folks ought to watch this. lol

[American Patriot]

“Well, if I remember right, I told them to ‘lock their doors and load their guns,’” Penman recounted.

Great for those in California that have guns, huh?

LMAO.

So goes California, so goes the Nation....

[American Patriot]

LA, Long Beach Port Strike Is About Job Security, Not Pay Raises

By JOHN ROGERS 12/04/12 12:55 PM ET EST













LOS ANGELES — The mayor of Los Angeles has joined talks aimed at ending an 8-day strike that's paralyzed the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Union spokesman Craig Merrilees says Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa flew back to the U.S. from a South American trip and joined contract talks at midnight. The talks have continued right through into Tuesday morning.
Merrilees says the mayor's efforts have helped bring both sides closer together but there's still much work to do before a settlement might be reached.
Meanwhile, union clerical workers continue to strike 10 terminals at the nation's busiest port complex and dockworkers won't cross picket lines.
Cargo worth hundreds of millions of dollars is not moving through the ports each day.

[American Patriot]

billions of dollars this is costing the US economy.

Unions need to be stopped.

[American Patriot]

Port strike: Trade group renews call for Obama to intervene in Long Beach, Los Angeles picket

By Karen Robes Meeks, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/03/2012 03:43:15 PM PST
Updated: 12/03/2012 07:19:35 PM PST

Trucks line up on Pier J Avenue as they wait to get in to Cosco, as other ships are parked in the Port of Long Beach on December 3, 2012. Cosco is one of the few terminals open during the clerical workers strike. (Jeff Gritchen / Staff Photographer)



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As the clerical workers strike continued to choke much of the goods movement flowing through the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, a major retail trade association on Monday renewed its call for President Barack Obama to intervene in the hopes of reopening the nation's busiest seaport complex.
"The shutdown is already having a significant negative economic impact on retailers trying to bring in merchandise for their final push for holiday sales and will soon have an impact on consumers," National Retail Federation President and CEO Matthew
Trucks line up on Pier J Avenue. as they wait to get in to Cosco, one of the few terminals open during the clerical workers strike, in the Port of Long Beach on December 3, 2012. Photo by Jeff Gritchen / Staff Photographer (Jeff Gritchen / Staff Photographer)


Shay said in a written statement. "The work stoppage not only impacts retailers, but is also affecting their product vendors - many of which are small businesses - and other industries like manufacturers and agricultural exporters that rely on the ports." The organization also sent a letter to the president last week.
"As the debate in Washington continues to focus on the state of the American economy and relief for middle-class consumers, a protracted strike will ultimately result in higher prices at the very time we can least afford it," Shay continued in his statement Monday. "This strike is now at the national emergency stage impacting industries far and wide. 'Urging' both sides toward a solution is not the answer. The

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Obama Administration needs to show leadership and resolve to get the ports operational again and prevent any further economic damage." The shutdown started about a week ago, when more than two years of contract talks dissolved between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit, which represents about 800 members, and their employers, the Los Angeles/Long Beach Harbor Employers Association, which represents shipping agencies and terminal operators in Southern California.
The clerical workers went on strike Tuesday at one terminal at the Port of Los Angeles, and by Wednesday the picket line had spread.
Members of the other unions at the two ports refused to cross the picket lines, effectively shutting down three of six terminals at the Port of Long Beach and seven of eight terminals at the Port of Los Angeles. That slowed to a crawl the movement of three-quarters of the ports' cargo, which some sources have estimated is costing the economy $1 billion per day.
"If there's no negotiating progress in the next day, I would assume there will be calls for the president to get involved and invoke the Taft-Hartley Act and get people back to work," said Kristin Monaco, an
Container ships anchored near the Long Beach/Seal Beach border on December 3, 2012. Most of the Port of Long Beach is shut down due to a clerical workers strike. Photo by Jeff Gritchen / Staff Photographer (Jeff Gritchen / Staff Photographer)


economics professor at California State Long Beach and an expert on port and trucking industry labor issues. Former President George W. Bush invoked the act in 2002 to end a 10-day dockworkers lockout that had spread across the entire West Coast.
The striking clerical workers, who have worked without a contract since the previous one expired in summer 2010, have expressed concern about the implementation of new booking information technology that could prompt employers to outsource jobs. That technology is already being used at other ports.
The harbor employers said they have offered the union several concessions on staffing and continue to offer wage and pension raises and no layoffs.
Although both sides resumed talks Thursday and negotiated throughout the weekend and today, the strike has been ongoing.
Union leaders at the nation's busiest seaport complex said negotiations were moving in the right direction Monday on the seventh day of a strike, but the employers were less optimistic.
"We're running out of options," management spokesman Steve Getzug said.
He said union negotiators were resisting proposed changes in future hiring practices that he said would give shippers the ability to avoid hiring unneeded employees. It's a practice management dismisses as featherbedding.
"Rather than having artificial staffing levels, we're saying give us the ability to make decisions based on need, and we think that's a reasonable request," Getzug said.
Union spokesman Craig Merrilees, who said the outsourcing issue is the sticking point in talks, said Monday that progress is being made.
"Everybody is working very hard and putting in long hours tonight, an indication that things are moving in the right direction," he said.
Meanwhile, the number of container ships at anchor or being diverted continues to rise.
About 11 container vessels remained at anchor waiting to dock Monday, while another 18 vessels have been diverted since the strike began to ports in Mexico, Panama and Oakland, said Dick McKenna, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, which monitors vessel traffic of the two ports.
Because some of the cargo is L.A.-bound, it is possible that some of the vessels may revisit the two ports, depending on how long the strike continues, McKenna said.
City leaders and those representing trucking and other companies have been pleading with both sides to come to a quick resolution, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was expected to stop by the talks late Monday, and Susan E. Anderson Wise, president of the Port of Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners.
Others have already taken sides. Long Beach Councilmen Al Austin, Patrick O'Donnell and Steven Neal expressed their support for the clerical workers and ILWU Locals 13 and 94.
"We are proud to stand with ILWU Locals 63, 13 and 94 as they stand up to stop the outsourcing of local jobs and seek a new and fair contract," they said in a statement released Monday. "We recognize the importance of port-related jobs to our region and urge that a fair solution be found that ensures our port jobs remain local and are not sent overseas. Further, we recognize the need for our port workers to secure a contract in a timely manner that allows them to fully provide for their families. A quick solution will benefit our working families and our economy."

[American Patriot]

Basically, they have shut down the port and the "strike is spreading". Teamsters won't cross the lines, longshoremen won't cross.... and other unions are supporting this nonsense.

millions of tons of crap are sitting on dozens of ships and docks waiting to come in and go out - and nothing is moving.

Christmas will be affected for some.

For companies with a vest interest in the ships and cargo though, profits are being eaten quickly.

All because of a Union.