16 Cement Trucks burst into flames link*

[UTC]

There was hiring practices and also many manning issues as the old "tween decker" ships required a lot of shovelmen when the ship came in, but when the ships changed so that cranes could do much more "free digging", the featherbedding was ridiculous. A bunch of guys doing absolutely nothing for days. Also the bulldozer shit like two hours on and two hours rest had to go, as well as certain crane operator and weigher practices that had multiple people standing around doing nothing while other ports stole NY's lunch. None of these issues occurred to anywhere the same degree in the so called "black locals" of Baltimore, New Orleans and even Hampton Roads/Newport News. Steamship Trade Association of Baltimore (affectionately know as STAB to its management members, was also involved in manning dilution initiatives, but not to the same degree. I was immersed in these matters for decades.

[UTC]

The situation was analogous to trade shows leaving the Javits Center wholesale because of the absurd manning rules that management didn't care about because they just passed the costs on. By the time they realized that stuff was not going to fly any more, other areas had permanently taken over much of the trade show business, as customers were not going to pay the "tax".

[Wiseguy]

The situation was analogous to trade shows leaving the Javits Center wholesale because of the absurd manning rules that management didn't care about because they just passed the costs on. By the time they realized that stuff was not going to fly any more, other areas had permanently taken over much of the trade show business, as customers were not going to pay the "tax".

Something I remember Gravano talked about as a point of concern expressed to Castellano. It was specifically in reference to the construction industry but could obviously apply elsewhere. Namely that they could extort, inflate prices, and generally push only so hard before the bubble burst.