LOL.
'ILWU workers receive a compensation package that is "among the most lucrative among all blue-collar workers in the United States," according to the PMA. Full-time workers earn an average of $142,000 annually in wages, along with a non-wage benefits package costing more than $82,000 per active worker per year.'
Besides the usual turf battles, one big sticking point in the negotiations seems to be the new 40% excise tax on "excess health insurance coverage", due to start in 2018. The ILWU workers currently have 100% of all medical and dental paid (tax free), and only pay a $1 co-pay for all medications. Like many executives, they don't want their "Cadillac" health plans subject to tax.
Given their wages, I'd say these dock workers wield power and influence. In 2002, while the ports were closed, it cost the US economy over $1 billion dollars per day. The dock workers have the power of law (government) behind them and they know how to use it, otherwise they would be all be paid like a Walmart "associate".
Collective bargaining is effective. Blue collar workers in the US who abandoned it and bet on a "trickle down economy" now have little power, money, influence, pensions or a 40 hr work week. The ILWU workers have all of those. Food for thought.