Friday for Effect - 2024.10.04

Election Day Minus 32

Fascist Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died on Thursday, November 20, 1975, just over a month after the premier of Saturday Night Live on NBC.

That Saturday, Chevy Chase reported on Franco’s death during the show’s Weekend Update segment. Then, over the weeks and months that followed, in one way or another, he continued to remind viewers that “Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.”

(As far as I know, he still is.)

Today, channeling the part of me that once enjoyed SNL, I’m here to report that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is still a liar.

And now, for the rest of the news.

“I don’t believe in Taft-Hartley”

No thanks to Joe Biden, the International Longshormen’s Association announced yesterday that it would postpone its three-day-old strike until January 15.

On September 30, as the midnight deadline neared, Biden was asked if he intended to intervene to encourage the two sides to reach a deal.

“It’s collective bargaining,” he explained. “I don’t believe in Taft-Hartley.”

(We can talk another time about the President of the United States not “believing in” a law that has been on the books for 77 years.)

That was four days after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida and proceeded to devastate large portions of seven states.

A resident of Horseshoe, FL, surveys the remains of his home and those of his neighbors.

By the time Biden offered his lily-livered response to the question about the impeding dockworkers’ strike, Helene had already claimed the lives of at least 120 Americans. So, just about the last thing the survivors needed was a dock strike along the very seaboard that serves them.

And as far as Joe’s invoking the whole “collective bargaining” farce, the ILA and its president, Harold Daggett, have left the Maritime Alliance (USMX), the group that employs longshoremen on the East Coast, hanging at the bargaining table alone. And, even in the absence of the other party, USMX actually raised its standing offer of a 40 percent wage increase to 50 percent.

The union had called the previous offer, “insulting.”

Let’s talk about what’s really insulting.

At her daily press briefing on October 1, about twelve hours into the strike, Karine Jean-Pierre counseled us all, “The ILA, these workers, deserve to get paid what they’re worth. They deserve that.”

I couldn’t agree more. So, what do you say we talk about what they deserve?

Just in case you were wondering, the average starting salary for ILA union members is $81,000. With overtime, they can rake in over $200,000.

Forgive a bit of context, here, but a rookie New York City cop or probationary firefighter each makes less than 60 grand, less than 3/4 of what a longshoreman currently pulls in.

Just saying.