How did 50K dockworkers strike at US ports with only 25K jobs?

Nearly 50,000 dockworkers launched a strike this week at ports from Maine to Texas — but, in a bizarre quirk that has resulted from massive concessions to the union over the decades, the affected ports only employ 25,000.There’s a massive gulf in the numbers between those who show up for work and total membership in the powerful International Longshoremen’s Association, which won a deal late Thursday for a 62% wage increase over the next six years.That’s because half of the dockworkers at the East and Gulf coast ports are allowed to sit at home collecting “container royalties” negotiated decades ago to protect against job losses that result from innovation, according to The Wall Street Journal.The impact of these no-show jobs at the ports — controlled by ILA’s highly-paid and foul-mouthed president Harold Daggett — were part of an explosive 2019-2020 Waterfront Commission report cited by The Journal’s editorial board on Friday.That report laid out how the ILA’s iron grip helps some workers at the expense of countless other blue-collar applicants by refusing to hire residents near the ports — and reignited concerns about the mob’s control over US shipping made famous in the classic film “On the Waterfront.”“The absolute control of the International Longshoremen’s Association, AFL-CIO (ILA) over hiring in the Port for over 60 years has not only led to a lack of diversity and inclusion in waterfront employment, but also to the perpetuation of criminality and corruption,” the Waterfront Commission report found.It also alleged that nearly 600 union members received more than $147 million in outsized salaries not required by the industry’s collective bargaining agreement — and for hours they don’t have to work at the ports.“Those who are connected to union leadership or organized crime figures are rewarded with high-paying, low-show or no-work special compensation packages,” Walter Arsenault, then-executive director of the Wat...