Update: LA Port Strike Ended -- But There's More: Record Port Traffic

The folks at the Los Angeles port who went on strike because their $96,000 salary and benefits package was not enough -- remember, these were "clerks" who simply wrote down what was coming into the port -- have ended their strike. The arbitrator said the clerks were not acting in good faith, calling the strike illegal, and thus other unions did not join in.

There's probably more to the story, but that's a nice myth.

Anyway, today the LA Times is reporting outstanding news for the port:

The port traffic at Los Angeles and Long Beach (neighbors) had its busiest June ever for cargo, surpassing the number of containers moved during the height of the global economic boom in 2006, and the neighboring Port of Long Beach also showed a strong increase in imports.

At the Port of Los Angeles in June, imports increased by 32% from a year earlier.  Exports were up 13%.

At the Port of Long Beach, imports jumped 27% and exports rose a meager 2% in June

For the first time since the worldwide recession, jobs were so plentiful on the docks last month that veteran union members had to be supplemented by hundreds of part-time workers.

The economic indicators continue to perplex but I think these are the tectonic shifts:

• American buying habits and interests have changed (houses are out/tech is in)
• China is on a roll

And clerks being paid $96,000 -- well over twice that of the average soldier in Afghanistan/Iraq -- are learning that maybe that's quite enough.