Last week we launched the first section of Ch.1 Beer-O-Nomics: How Beer Alone Can Make Our Island Better. Here’s the next section on Trucking and Stateside Ports. If you missed last week’s section check it out.
TRUCKING
Most truckers as well are unionized which means they are making a decent middle class wage. As one might imagine people in Guam drink a fair amount of beer. This means the wages these workers make driving the thousands of trucks a year from the breweries to the port goes into building their communities and economies. Therefore, we have to think of not only the cost of fuel, tires, insurance and maintenance of the trucks but the cost of the truck drivers’ wages and benefits as well.
STATESIDE PORTS
Once the trucks arrive at whatever Port they are to be shipped out of, they are loaded onto the ships by our union brothers and sisters that are all making over $100,000 per year. Yes that’s right $100k per year. Port unions are some of the strongest in the country and around the world. Port workers know the only reason they have decent middle class jobs is because of the battles their predecessors have fought and they stand ready at a moment’s notice to fight for their families and communities when the next attack on their solidarity comes. On top of the good wages these hard working folks earn there are all sorts of other fees that have to be added on to the cost of unloading a container, storing it and then loading it onto a ship.
Read the next section on Shipping and Guam’s Port next week!