The approximate cost that the dozens of ports and terminals that collectively form the Pacific Maritime Alliance, which represents those businesses in negotiations with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) among other duties, will be hit with if the same deal on health care is maintained in a new contract after the current one expires July 1. Why? Since union members pay virtually nothing for health insurance currently, their plans fall under the "Cadillac" plans as defined in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and thus subject to a 40% excise tax on top of the cost of the insurance itself. Ouch. The reality is the PMA would be better off even just requiring union members to pay more for their health coverage and making up the difference in wages, as this would at least avoid the the excise tax trigger.

The approximate cost of the financial hit the Otis elevator division of United Technology absorbed in 2013 from a reshoring effort gone bad, according to an article last week in the Wall Street Journal. The company planned to move production from a major plant in Mexico and close down two other US factories in favor of a single facility in Florence, SC. Add to that a new supply chain software system at the same time and other changes, and it was all too much. The new plant just couldn't deliver enough volume, and order backlog quickly grew. The costs are a combination of lost orders, keeping the Mexico plant going six months longer than expected, overtime and temporary labor, and more. While the backlog is at last being cleaned up, extra costs will be continuing well into 2014. "We bit of more than we could chew," the company's CFO said.