longshoreman contract > dolabor, dot osha, stated, coast guard, sba, us navy, railroad, faa, ila, atsm these guys are both necessary, and being quickly supplanted by a very capable automation in some situations. the necessity arises from the reality of non-standard cargo that arrives from all over the earth, from ports with varying levels of infrastructure and packaging options, as well as the reality of shipping accidents/hinderances, such as water and tumble damage, sea-transit induced or otherwise. the job is hazardous, and national security impacting. the amount of chemicals offloaded from even one larger transport might be enough to poison/level an entire city if mishandled. and since many ports are now essentially center of major metropolis thanks to our successes, that cannot be ruled out. operators need to be well trained, ongoing, in hazardous material movement and storage, and not for light reason. they are well educated, skilled, and literally life-blood to civilization. port standardization/automation is a transit advantage, where it can be implemented. while not available in all situations, automated load and unload has the capacity to increase productivity, reduce employment costs and risks to humans, and make down-chain logistic and warehousing simpler and faster. ai/automation in logistics can function in certain sections of logistics, and there is little reason to not look for this in as many cases as possible. yes, human employment remains a concern, but it's already understood, us war doctrine and the experience of multiple wars proves, logistics wins. a perfect kill cube, cannot win the war if it's not in the hands of the user.
United States