Dangerous deal on the waterfront

[NVMojo]

It's bombshell news: A United Arab Emirates-based company called Dubai Ports World last week bought London's historic old Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation for $6.8 billion. Global business as usual? But P&O runs New York's port operations - as well as those in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami and New Orleans - and now those ports are in the hands of a firm owned by a sheikdom suspected of connections to Al Qaeda terrorists, Iraqi insurgents and Iranian flame-throwers. Congress is in an uproar. As well it should be.
How can we even think of permitting the government of the UAE to control five of the busiest ports on the East Coast?

The UAE professes to be a loyal U.S. ally in the war on terror. But it was also home to two of the 9/11 hijackers, and it was one of only three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Good for Sen. Chuck Schumer and Reps. Pete King and Vito Fossella, who are leading Capitol Hill's bipartisan demand for answers from a Treasury Department that secretly approved this outrageous deal just hours, it seems, after the sale. Was this federal signoff fast-tracked? By whom? For whom? Why?

The feds did review the transaction, as required by law - and say they're satisfied there's no security risk here. Schumer and King and Fossella want a far more rigorous investigation, and so do we.

more...


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/392871p-333156c.html

[wakeme2008]

1. IMHO,,, * will have OK "Guest Visas" and the Unions that worked

in those cities will be replaced by cheaper third country labor.

Just what I really think this is about.

[baby_bear]

2. Do you have any evidence for this, wakeme2008?

I mean, I figured it was just the Bush version of "the marketplace forces" and cheap labor would follow that, but do you really think that foreign labor will replace union jobs at US ports?

Here is Seattle, these are veryy high-paying jobs.

How would a new operator get ridk of the union?

This is very scary stuff you are talking about.

b_b

[wakeme2008]

4. No evidence but

P&O was a British company and now UEA. The UK is more Union friendly than UEA. One of the first things the new company will want to do is reduce labor cost. And how do you do that, bring in cheap labor already working in your other ports. Just IMHO.

[HockeyMom]

3. So do I

as the daughter of a now deceased Port of New York Longeshoreman. It's more Union busting and the elmination of middle class jobs. I do truly think these people want the elimination of the middle class; just a society of rich and poor.

[Colorado Blue]

5. Is this "globalization?"

I can't wait until the next elections.