Meet the Port of Los Angeles’ dock workers who make over $100,000 working with some of the world’s largest robots

Meet the Port of Los Angeles’ dock workers who make over $100,000 working with some of the world’s largest robots

Dock workers at the Port of Los Angeles have one of the highest-paying blue-collar jobs in the US. The over 7,000 longshoremen represented through the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) that are paid over $100,000 a year and receive free health insurance and full pensions, according to a new book from The Wall Street Journal's Christopher Mims. In the book, Mims breaks down how goods travel from Asia to the US. The workers receive nearly three times as much money as the average dock worker in the US, which lists the average salary as $36,710 a year. But, Mims contextualizes the workers' high pay within the scope of the ILWU's strength, as well as the skill and danger associated with the job. "The longshoremen in TracPac's cranes are real-life examples of the science fiction staples of pilots in giant mechanized suits, except that instead of battling city-destroying Kaiju, they rise each morning to cooperate with equally tremendous seaborne giants transporting consumer goods from one continent to another," Mims writes. Longshoremen represent a crucial part of the complicated dance that makes up the global supply chain. The ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach are . In Los Angeles, the