republican president abraham lincoln elected? >> it's a way that's different for me. we, you know, the newspaper is something that's important but back in the day, everyone read the newspaper. so alvin bobay, we call him the father of the republican party, he had a great relationship with horace greeley, editor of the new york tribune. they were in contact all the time. as soon as this meeting took place the letter went to horace greeley letting him know. we say the spark was lit here and it spread quickly through our newspapers of soon enough we saw more local meetings. we saw the first state meeting and then the first national convention. it really did move quickly. >> thank you for your time. >> thank emocratic presidential nominee kamala harris is campaigning innsin with former rcan congresswoman liz cheney today. watch our live cover 6:00

p.m. eastern on c-span. liree spent -- on c-span outcome are free mobile video app and online at c-span.org. >> i conversation now on the ongoing longshoreman strike at ports on the east and gulf coasts. coast. our guest is christina mcdaniel who is a current research fellow at the mercatus center. what a longshoreman does, and why they are striking at this point -- at this point? guest: so, one thing that i think your listeners might find interesting is why are these guys called longshoreman and i want to say guys and it is men and women. 85 to 90% are men. the term comes from back in a long time ago, these guys would line up along the shore, so along the shore. when there is work then the

ports would hire them. as on and on -- on a as needed basis. what they do, today what they do is they are responsible for largely getting the containers off of the ships and putting them in the right place. sometimes they have to stay there for a particular time and sometimes they are ready to go and they get it to the right place. sometimes it is to the rails or to the trucks. but these longshoreman deal with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these containers a day, so it can get very complicated and very quickly. host: why are they striking? guest: they want more money. they see that the counterparts in europe got a nice bonus from their employers and the thing about the shipping industry is that it has ups and downs.

and it is pretty concentrated. it is extremely expensive. but it does have ups and downs. and when it has the ups, support workers usually want a piece. and that is what is happening now. the longshoreman on the east coast see that a lot of these shipping companies have big bumper years previously and they would like a piece of the profit. they want to pay raises and they also want better commitments on the pensions and health insurance. and they want -- they have some pretty strong demands on automation. they do not want the ports to use automated cranes or the movement of these containers from the ships to where they need to go, they do not that -- they do not want that to become automated either.

that is the package of what they want. host: how many companies are we talking about? and do they all have to pay longshoreman the same rates and have the same rules as about automation use or do different companies make different contracts? guest: well, it does very by port, and i do not know the specifics of each board. they want all of the ports -- the ila are negotiating with the u.s. maritime alliance which is a group of shippers and ocean carriers and own the ports. they want an agreement, these 36 ports, they want these 36 ports to agree to hire wages, all of those benefits and as a group they want them to commit to not using automation.

so, that is a pretty major commitment, especially when you look at how you e-sports do on a global -- u.s. ports do on a global scale. it is pretty bad. most u.s. ports are on the bottom 20% of port efficiency. so, it is not that surprising that the maritime alliance once them to approve. they want them to get better. there is more and more cargo coming in every year. but to get at her you need a flexible workforce and to be able to use new technologies that are on offer. host: presumably there on the on -- there longshoremen's on the west coast but why is this just happening on the east coast. guest: the west coast had their contract renewal recently. so now it is the east coast's turn. host: how much of what comes into this country comes in through the east and gulf ports?

and is there a way to move product into the country without coming into the ports and moving it other places? guest: the ports along the east coast and gulf handle about 60% of u.s. trade, 60% of u.s. imports and exports and 40% is handled by the west coast. if they do not use those east coast ports, i mean the longer it goes on symbol waited out -- some will wait it out and some will choose air & just choose to completely redirect and go around and use the west coast. but that will add several weeks to their shipping. so if you think this will be less than eight weeks, maybe four to eight weeks and you might just wait it out or fly your stuff in. if it is going to be more, five

to seven weeks, you might start to think about different routes. host: plenty of headlines on the strike in today's papers. "port strike might impact the fed future rate moves. this from "the washington post" how it will stall shipments from trade goods. and "the wall street journal" with a profile of the 78-year-old chief of the longshoremen's association and the face of the strike. he was talking with reporters on monday and here's what he had to say. [video clip] >> are you worried that the strike will hurt the advocate -- the everyday american. >> listen, and now you realize who the longshoremen are. people never gave a [bleep] about us until now. and they realize the chain is being broken. cars and food will not come in, clothing will not come in.

do you know how many people depend on our jobs, half the world. and it is time for them in washington to put so much pressure on them to take care of us because we have taken care of them. we were here 135 years and ports are here today and they do not want to share. [end video clip] host: christine mcdaniel, what is your sense of when the chain gets broken and when the average american feels the impact. guest: we are probably already starting to feel the impact. the markets have been pricing this in for a while. ila has been threatening to strike so a lot of the retailers or importers or exporters have priced this and and they have also been stocking up on inventory to avoid getting caught in this potential strike. so, on retail, unlikely to have any immediate effects.

also holiday inventory is largely already stocked. we will start to see some impacts sooner rather than later and agricultural products especially perishable food items on the import and export side and u.s. pork and poultry. they are going to get caught up in this the longer this goes on and then auto as well especially on the import side if this starts to go on for several weeks. maybe even months and we will start to see some car dealers have some pretty empty lots or start to empty out there lots. host: president biden says he will not step in. explain what a president could do in a negotiation like this? guest: i mean, the white house can quietly put pressure on both sides to negotiate. i think that is what has already been happening.

it looks like right now the ila and u.s. maritime alliance are negotiating by press releases. they have not sat down yet. the -- and my understanding is that the maritime alliance was first offering a 40% pay increase. after some pressure from the white house they bumped it up to almost 50% but the ila is still at 77% that they want and all of these other things. the president could invoked the toft-hurley act which would force the workers to come back for a number of days. i want to say it is 80. but so far, there is no appetite, at least stated by the white house to do that. host: in the white house briefing room, tuesday of this week the press secretary was talking about potential supply disruptions and what the administration could do.

this is what she had to say. [video clip] >> how we see this moving forward as it relates to the economy and potential impacts is that we will continue to closely monitor the situation and what this could have potentially on supply chain impacts and addressing concerns if necessary. and the president and vice president as i said at the top are being briefed. they were briefed on the agency assessments that show a limited impact on critical consumer needs at this time including in the important areas of fuel, wood, and medicine. the president started the supply chain disruption tax force -- task force in with the pandemic. so they will need that so they will meet every day and prepared to address disruptions if necessary. we are engaged extensively with labor industries, state and local officials and rail and

truck companies including multiple meetings with retailers and agriculture [end video clip] host: she mentioned a task force. what is that? guest: the u.s. department of commerce has set up a supply chain task force like an office within the department of commerce to try and get ahead of the is -- these shortages, and the kinds of things we saw in covid, for instance. and then to identify areas wide -- where the u.s. economy might be overly reliant on one supplier. that has been interesting to watch. there have been some analytical tools that they have talked about. the thing is, you talk to the private sector and it is a private sector that run their own supply chains. it is not clear really how much the government can really do on this. at the end of the day it is

going to be up to buyers and sellers in the private marketplace to sort this out. the best thing the government can do is to try and stay out of it and try to avoid some of the instincts to go after price gaucher's and things like this. because it is usually grossly misunderstood by government agencies and buyers and sellers will work this out. host: christine mcdaniel is our guest from the mercatus center at george mason university. former george w. bush trade official and is with us until 10:00 a.m. eastern. let me bring in some callers. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 free democrats -- for democrats. independents, 202-748-8002. susan is in one of those towns, republican, what is your question or comment?

caller: i have a couple. the guest mentioned that europe, their dockworkers got a raise. while that is because they have owned docs privately. in america we sold all the docs to china. and then china, all the docs are run by automation. somebody making five dollars an hour sits there at a console and pushes buttons and runs the docks. i think what is going on in america, the labor union is seeing the encroachment of this automation by china. how we sold all of the ports to china i do not know, that should be critical infrastructure. i think that is the main point, to get rid of this threat of automation. thank you. host: you have friends or no folks for work at a dock in portsmouth? i think we lost susan.

on her point about american docs and who owns -- docks and who owns them? guest: i do not know who owns which but china has been making moves to invest and buy ports. they are finishing up a big one in peru. they -- i did not think that china owned any u.s. ports but maybe they have invested in some but i might be wrong on that. they do have ownership stakes in a number of ports around the europe, the middle east and now south america in our own backyard. host: out on the west coast, chuck. democrat. good morning. caller: i was a longshoreman for 42 years out of seattle and the west coast. and just to mention her comments on longshoreman. what that was was called a shape

up. that meant men would line up and basically would payoff the boss to hire them. now, talking about port ownership, we on the west coast, all of the ports are locally elected officials. and they work through the companies that are mostly from asia and europe. and so, they do not own the terminal. now the comment on money we make, we have to show up to go to work to earn our money. so you are telling these people that we make too much money when you have to go to work to get your money? now the automation, there is a point of automation where it slows down everything. they do not go fast.

i was a crane operator and i would do 30 containers an hour. if you have automation that cuts down to 15. my final point. host: can i ask them on that, how are you able to do it faster than a machine? what can't the machine do? caller: you operate the crane faster. it is about speed and actually being a good crane operator. the machine goes only one speed. and i want to make a comment about during covid. up in seattle, we were not given essential worker privileges, even though we came to work every day and night. to make sure that cargo flowed through. so there was a lot of times where we put ourselves out there and actually did lose members.

so, i appreciate the lady talking. and when you talk about that, pardon me, they tried to impose that on us during, it might have been bullish. -- bush. but we were not on strike, and they tried to implement that. the fact is that we work hard, we deserve what we get and we deserve a pension. and thank you for my call. host: thank you for the longshoreman perspective. what do you want to pick up on that? guest: a lot of these port workers and workers in these ports, some use more automation than others. presumably the maritime alliance just want to improve the ports for operations. so if a human can do something better than a machine i presume they would keep that.

every industry goes through technological change. and it is never easy. but, there is always going to be in the long run jobs created and destroyed from technology. and as an economist that is easy for me to say. my. -- my dad was an electrician , a union worker and sometimes there would and would not be work. one thing that mr. daggerts was saying is sometimes there is no work and there is -- and that is hard for his workers. i remember growing up in illinois and sometime there was no work for my dad and he would have to leave and find it. i do not know if people are entitled to a full-time job with all of the benefits that they want and a promise from their employer that things would never change. that would be great if we could all have that. i am sure my dad would have loved to have that.

but that is not the way the economy runs. host: do longshoreman have a different kind of leverage than other labor negotiations? guest: they do because let's say you are in mcdonald's and you do not want and they tried to stop mcdonald's from automating. donald said that we would do it and they put all of the kiosks in, and got rid of a lot of their workers. and so they could do that because they had the ability to do that. because those workers were not -- even if they did all leave, they were ready to replace them with kiosks although there is an interesting side story is that people are ordering more food at mcdonald's and there is more work for the people in the back. but for the east and gulf coast ports, the thing is that the

union workers, i mean if they are threatening to shut down -- they are threatening to shut down all 36 ports. they really are in the driver's seat. and so, it is not -- they definitely have the upper hand here. in a way, somebody says it is almost like extortion which is a little extreme. but you can see how people will think that. the ila has a lot more leverage than a typical union because they can and have shuts down the entire east gulf coast ports. host: back to washington. seattle. jim. line for independents. caller: i want to talk about why is this happening. and i think it all stems from my opinion from what i called the over-the-top energy policy towards this global warming agenda that the biden administration is trying to push

way beyond its ability to get it in line. you have the situation wherewith energy prices going so high. and i sympathize. the price of everything has gone up 20%. and they need to be provided more money. the problem is it is the energy policy doing this. it is not just a dog workers -- dock workers but the wars around the world. we allowed the energy price on oil to double in the last four years which allowed russia and iran to make more money. now they are prosecuting all of these wars. and in addition we have the houthis cutting off channel there. and causing prices to go up. we -- i know they say we are for

fracking now. the trouble with that is that they have also put all of these regulations on methane and that is creating a problem that you cannot go and build new wells at a cost that make new sense. the fracking wells, 60 percent is gone in the first two years. host: we will take the comment on the energy sector and how it can be playing into these issues. guest: some great points. these longshoreman are facing higher prices and that is the thing. we are all facing high prices. and not all of our wages have kept up. not just longshoreman. you can see it in the data and the confidence index has been below trend for quite a while. the entire economy is reeling from higher prices. that