Dockworker

Last updated
Longshoremen on a New York dock load barrels of corn syrup onto a barge on the Hudson River. Photograph by Lewis Hine, c. 1912. Stevedores ny 1912.jpg
Longshoremen on a New York dock load barrels of corn syrup onto a barge on the Hudson River. Photograph by Lewis Hine, c. 1912.
Dockers load bagged cargo - MS Rothenstein (North German Lloyd), Port Sudan, 1960 Hafenarbeiter bei der Verladung von Sackgut - MS Rothenstein NDL, Port Sudan 1960.png
Dockers load bagged cargo – MS Rothenstein (North German Lloyd), Port Sudan, 1960

A dockworker (also called a longshoreman, stevedore, or docker) is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships. [1]

Contents

After the intermodal shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the required dockworkers declined by over 90%. [2]

Etymology

The word stevedore ( /ˈstvɪˌdɔːr/ ) originated in Portugal or Spain, and entered the English language through its use by sailors. [3] It started as a phonetic spelling of estivador (Portuguese) or estibador (Spanish), meaning a man who loads ships and stows cargo, which was the original meaning of stevedore (though there is a secondary meaning of "a man who stuffs" in Spanish); compare Latin stīpāre meaning to stuff, as in to fill with stuffing. In Ancient and Modern Greek, the verb στοιβάζω (stevazo) means pile up. [4] [5] In Great Britain and Ireland, people who load and unload ships are usually called dockers; in Australia, they are called stevedores, dockworkers or wharfies; and, in the United States and Canada, the term longshoreman, derived from man-along-the-shore, is used. [6] Before the extensive use of container ships and shore-based handling machinery in the United States, longshoremen referred exclusively to the dockworkers, while stevedores, in a separate trade union, worked on the ships, operating ship's cranes and moving cargo. In Canada, the term stevedore has also been used, for example, in the name of the Western Stevedoring Company, Ltd., based in Vancouver, British Columbia, in the 1950s. [7]

History

Dockworkers, also known as longshoremen and stevedores, have a long and storied history that dates back to ancient times. The role of dockworkers has evolved significantly over the centuries as maritime trade has grown and modernized. Here is an overview of the history of dockworkers.

Loading and unloading ships

Loading and unloading ships requires knowledge of the operation of loading equipment, the proper techniques for lifting and stowing cargo, and the correct handling of hazardous materials. In addition, workers must be physically strong and able to follow orders attentively. Many longshoremen are needed to unload a ship successfully. A ship can only be at a port for a limited amount of time, so their work must be completed quickly.

In earlier days before the introduction of containerization, men who loaded and unloaded ships had to tie down cargoes with rope. A type of stopper knot is called the stevedore knot. Securely tying up parcels of goods is called stevedore lashing or stevedore knotting. While loading a general cargo vessel, they use dunnage, which are pieces of wood (or nowadays sometimes strong inflatable dunnage bags) set down to keep the cargo out of any water that might be lying in the hold or are placed as shims between cargo crates for load securing.

Today, the vast majority of non-bulk cargo is transported in intermodal containers. [17] The containers arrive at a port by truck, rail, or another ship and are stacked in the port's storage area. When the vessel that will be transporting them arrives, the containers it is offloading are unloaded by a crane. The containers either leave the port by truck or rail or are stored until they are placed on another ship. Once the ship is offloaded, the containers it leaves with are brought to the dock by truck. A crane lifts the containers from the trucks onto the ship. As the containers pile up on the ship, the workers connect them to the vessel and the other already-placed containers. The jobs involved include the crane operators, the workers who connect the containers to the ship and each other, the truck drivers who transport the containers from the dock and storage area, the workers who track the containers in the storage area as they are loaded and unloaded, as well as various supervisors. Those workers at the port who handle and move the containers are likely to be considered stevedores or dockworkers.

Before containerization, freight was often handled with a longshoreman’s hook, a tool which became emblematic of the profession (mainly on the west coast of the United States and Canada). [18]

Traditionally, stevedores had no fixed job but would arrive at the docks in the morning seeking employment for the day. London dockers called this practice standing on the stones, [19] while in the United States, it was referred to as shaping up or assembling for the shape-up. [20] [21]

Dock workers have been a prominent part of the modern labor movement. [22]

By country

Australia

In Australia, the informal term "wharfie" (from wharf laborer) and the formal "waterside worker" include the variety of occupations covered in other countries by words like longshoreman or stevedore. The term "stevedore" is also sometimes used, as in the company name Patrick Stevedores. The term "docker" is also used, as in the Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union, and is the mascot of the Fremantle Dockers in the Australian Football League.

The Maritime Union of Australia has coverage of these workers and fought a substantial industrial battle in the 1998 Australian waterfront dispute to prevent the contracting out of work to non-union workers.

In 1943, dockworkers in Melbourne and Sydney were deliberately exposed to mustard gas while unloading the ship Idomeneus. Many suffered death and permanent disability—all as a result of military secrecy. [23]

Japan

Several dockworkers' unions exist in Japan. [24] Agreements between two bodies, the National Federation of Dockworkers Unions of Japan and the Japan Harbor Transportation Association, govern the working conditions for dockworkers. [25] In 1982, Japanese dockworkers refused to work with fruit treated with ethylene dibromide (EDB). [26]

New Zealand

New Zealand usage is very similar to the Australian version; "waterside workers" are also known as "wharfies." The 1951 New Zealand waterfront dispute, involving New Zealand dockworkers, was the most significant and most bitter industrial dispute in the country's history.[ This paragraph needs citation(s) ]

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the definition of a stevedore varies from port to port. In some ports, only the highly skilled master of a loading gang is referred to as a "stevedore". "Docker" is the usual general term used in the UK for a worker who loads or unloads ships and performs various other jobs required at a seaport.

In some ports, a stevedore is a person who decides where cargo is stowed on a ship for safe stowage and even balance of a ship. It is not a hands-on role.[ citation needed ]

It was once known to refer to those working on a ship—loading or unloading the cargo—as stevedores, while those working on the quayside were called dockers.

In the ports along the Thames, stevedores load, while dockers unload (according to Michael Budge, ex docker, Tilbury and Dave Penn, ex docker, Tilbury, 1978–2018).[ full citation needed ]

United States

Dockworkers loading a tank in Brooklyn, New York, Continental Piers, 1959 The M48 Patton tank is lifted gently aboard TS Nabob, NY - 1959.jpg
Dockworkers loading a tank in Brooklyn, New York, Continental Piers, 1959

In present-day American waterfront usage, a longshoreman is usually a person or a company who manages the loading or unloading of a ship. In the early 19th century, the word was traditionally applied to black laborers or enslaved people who loaded and unloaded bales of cotton and other freight on and off riverboats. In Two Years Before the Mast (1840), the author Richard Henry Dana Jr. describes the steeving of a merchant sailing ship in 1834. This was the process of taking a mostly full hold and cramming in more material. In this case, the hold was filled with hides from the California hide trade up to four feet below the deckhead (equivalent of 'ceiling'). "Books" composed of 25–50 cattle skins folded into a bundle were prepared, and a small opening was created in the middle of one of the existing stacks. Then, the book was shoved in using a pair of thick, strong pieces of wood called steeves. The dockworkers had one end shaped like a wedge, placed into the middle of a book to shove into the stack. The other ends were pushed on through block and tackle and attached to the hull and overhead beams, which sailors hauled on.

Typically one ethnic group dominated the longshoreman market in a port, usually the Irish Catholics, as seen in the 1954 film about New York On the Waterfront . [27] In New Orleans there was a competition between the Irish and the blacks. [28]

In the Port of Baltimore, Polish Americans dominated. In the 1930s, about 80% of Baltimore's dockworkers were Polish or of Polish descent. [29] The port of Baltimore had an international reputation of fast cargo handling credited to the well-organized gang system that was nearly free of corruption, wildcat strikes, and repeated work stoppages of its other East coast counterparts. The New York Anti-Crime Commission and the Waterfront Commission looked upon the Baltimore system as ideal for all ports. The gang system's hiring of dockworkers in Baltimore dates back to 1913 when the ILA was first formed. The Polish dockworkers began setting up the system by selecting the most skilled men to lead them. This newly formed gang would usually work for the same company, which would give priority to the gang. When there was no work within the particular company, the gang would work elsewhere or even divide to aid other groups, speeding up the work and making it more efficient. [30] In an environment as dangerous as a busy waterfront, Baltimore's gangs always operated together as a unit because the experience let them know what each member would be doing at any given time, making a waterfront much safer. [31] At the beginning of the Second World War, Polish predominance in the Port of Baltimore significantly diminished, as many Poles were drafted.

It is common to use the terms "stevedore" and "longshoreman" interchangeably. [30] The U.S. Congress has done so in the Ship Mortgage Act, 46 app. U.S.C. section 31301(5)(C), which designates both "crew wages" and "stevedore wages" as preferred maritime liens. The statute intended to give the wages of the seamen and dockworkers the same level of protection. Sometimes the word "stevedore" is used to mean "the man who loads and unloads a ship" as the British "docker".

Today,[ when? ] a stevedore typically owns the equipment used in the loading or discharge operation and hires dockworkers who load and unload cargo under the direction of a stevedore superintendent. This type of work along the East Coast waterfront was characteristic of ports like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.

Today, a commercial stevedoring company also may contract with a terminal owner to manage all terminal operations. Many large container ship operators have established in-house stevedoring operations to handle cargo at terminals and to provide stevedoring services to other container carriers.

One union within the AFL–CIO represents dockworkers: the International Longshoremen's Association, which represents dockworkers on the East Coast, on the Great Lakes and connected waterways and along the Gulf of Mexico. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents dockworkers along the West Coast, Hawaii, and Alaska, was formerly affiliated with the AFL–CIO but disaffiliated in 2013.

Docker lashing down cargo aboard a container ship Dockworker lashing a container.jpg
Docker lashing down cargo aboard a container ship

Notable dockworkers

Former stevedores and dockworkers include:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Containerization</span> Intermodal freight transport system

Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers. Containerization, also referred as container stuffing or container loading, is the process of unitization of cargoes in exports. Containerization is the predominant form of unitization of export cargoes, as opposed to other systems such as the barge system or palletization. The containers have standardized dimensions. They can be loaded and unloaded, stacked, transported efficiently over long distances, and transferred from one mode of transport to another—container ships, rail transport flatcars, and semi-trailer trucks—without being opened. The handling system is mechanized so that all handling is done with cranes and special forklift trucks. All containers are numbered and tracked using computerized systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1934 West Coast waterfront strike</span> Labor strike by longshoremen in California, Oregon, and Washington

The 1934 West Coast waterfront strike lasted 83 days, and began on May 9, 1934, when longshoremen in every US West Coast port walked out. Organized by the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), the strike peaked with the death of two workers on "Bloody Thursday" and the subsequent San Francisco General Strike, which stopped all work in the major port city for four days and led ultimately to the settlement of the West Coast Longshoremen's Strike.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Longshoremen's Association</span>

The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) is a North American labor union representing longshore workers along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the Gulf Coast, the Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, and inland waterways; on the West Coast, the dominant union is the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. The ILA has approximately 200 local affiliates in port cities in these areas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malcom McLean</span> Transport entrepreneur who developed the modern intermodal shipping container

Malcom Purcell McLean was an American businessman who invented the modern intermodal shipping container, which revolutionized transport and international trade in the second half of the twentieth century. Containerization led to a significant reduction in the cost of freight transportation by eliminating the need for repeated handling of individual pieces of cargo, and also improved reliability, reduced cargo theft, and cut inventory costs by shortening transit time. Containerization is a major driver of globalization.

Docker most often refers to:

The Battle of Ballantyne Pier occurred in Ballantyne Pier during a docker's strike in Vancouver, British Columbia, in June 1935.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Columbia Maritime Employers' Association</span>

The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association is an association representing the interests of member companies in industrial relations on Vancouver's and other British Columbian seaports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hook (hand tool)</span> Hand tool for securing and moving loads

A hook is a hand tool used for securing and moving loads. It consists of a round wooden handle with a strong metal hook about 20 cm long projecting at a right angle from the center of the handle. The appliance is held in a closed fist with the hook projecting between two fingers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Breakbulk cargo</span> Shipping goods that are loaded individually

In shipping, break-bulk, breakbulk, or break bulk cargo, also called general cargo, is goods that are stowed on board ships in individually counted units. Traditionally, the large numbers of items are recorded on distinct bills of lading that list them by different commodities. This is in contrast to cargo stowed in modern intermodal containers as well as bulk cargo, which goes directly, unpackaged and in large quantities, into a ship's hold(s), measured by volume or weight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Red Hook Container Terminal</span> Freight transport facility in New York City

The Red Hook Marine Terminal is an intermodal freight transport facility in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, on the Upper New York Bay in the Port of New York and New Jersey. The maritime facility handles container ships and bulk cargo and includes a container terminal. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) bought the piers in the 1950s when there was still much break bulk cargo activity in the port. The container terminal was built in the 1980s.

Dockworkers in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century often coordinated their unionization efforts across racial lines. The nature of that coordination has led some scholars to conclude that the seeming interracial union activity was in fact biracial: a well-organized plan of parallel concerted activity with coordination and support between the groups, but with a clear divide along racial lines.

The Waterfront Workers History Project is a program of the University of Washington, which serves to document the history of workers and unions active on the ports, inland waterways, fisheries, canneries, and other waterfront industries of the western United States and Canada, specifically, California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and British Columbia. In collaboration with the Pacific Northwest Labor and Civil Rights History Projects, and sponsored by the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, the Project is a collective effort to organize and present historical data covering significant events from 1894 to the current day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mechanization and Modernization Agreement 1960</span>

The Mechanization and Modernization (M&M) Agreement of 1960 was an agreement reached by California longshoremen unions: International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), and the Pacific Maritime Association. This agreement applied to workers on the Pacific Coast of the United States, the West Coast of Canada, and Hawaii. The original agreement was contracted for five years and would be in effect until July 1, 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Longshore and Warehouse Union</span> Labor union

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) is a labor union which primarily represents dock workers on the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii, and in British Columbia, Canada; on the East Coast, the dominant union is the International Longshoremen's Association. The union was established in 1937 after the 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike, a three-month-long strike that culminated in a four-day general strike in San Francisco, California, and the Bay Area. It disaffiliated from the AFL–CIO on August 30, 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swanson Dock</span> Shipping facility in Melbourne, Victoria

Swanson Dock is an international shipping facility in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was constructed between 1966 and 1972 by the Melbourne Harbor Trust, leading off the north bank of the Yarra River, to alleviate congestion in the port and provide Melbourne's first container shipping terminal. It is located about 2 km downstream from the Melbourne CBD and was named after Victor Swanson, chairman of the Melbourne Harbor Trust from 1960 to 1972.

On July 1, 1971, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) walked out against their employers, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA). The union's goal was to secure employment, wages, and benefits in the face of increased mechanization, shrinking workforce, and the slowing economic climate of the early 1970s. The strike shut down all 56 West coast ports, including those in Canada, and lasted 130 days, the longest strike in the ILWU's history.

The Longshore Strike 1948 was an industrial dispute which took place in 1948 on the west coast of the United States. President of the ILWU at the time was Harry Bridges. The WEA led by Frank P. Foisie were in a conflict, they were unable to come to agreeable terms and with the issues of hiring and the politics of union leadership, longshoremen and marine unions performed a walk out on September 2, 1948.
The strike shut down the United States’ West Coast ports and put a dent in American labor history and a positive change for future longshoremen.

The Portland Waterfront strike of 1922 was a labor strike conducted by the International Longshoremen's Association which took place in Portland, Oregon from late April to late June 1922. The strike was ineffective at closing down the Port of Portland due to strikebreakers, and on June 22 the strike ended with the employers dictating terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh longshoremen, 1863–1963</span>

In the late 1870s, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh communities on the North Shore of Burrard Inlet experienced an increase of physical and economic encroachment from the expansion of neighbouring Vancouver. Faced with urbanization and industrialization around reserve lands, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh traditional economies became increasingly marginalized, while government-imposed laws increasingly restricted Native fishing, hunting, and access to land and waters for subsistence. In response, these communities increasingly turned to participating in the wage-labor economy.

The Portland Longshoremans Benevolent Society was a trade union and benevolent society in Portland, Maine, United States. It existed as an independent organization from its founding in 1880 until it affiliated with the International Longshoremen's Association in 1914. Incorporated in 1880, it was composed of primarily Irish and Irish-American dockworkers who loaded and unloaded ships in the Portland waterfront. The early peak of PLSBS membership occurred in 1899 when the union had 868 members. By 1910, declines in the amount of Canadian grain exported through the port meant decreased membership, which hit 425. Having been defeated in two major strikes, the PLSBS affiliated with the International Longshoremen's Association in early 1914. Similar independent unions had recently joined the ILA in Boston and elsewhere.

References

  1. "Dockworker". Dictionary.com . Retrieved August 27, 2023.
  2. Khan, Khalil U. (15 September 2014). "Stevedoring & The Role of Stevedores in Shipping". The International Institute of Marine Surveying (IIMS). Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  3. David Maclachlan (1875). A Treatise on the Law of Merchant Shipping. W. Maxwell & Son. pp. 387–.
  4. "Modern Greek Verbs – στοιβάζω, στοίβαξα, στοιβάχτηκα, στοιβαγμένος – I pile up". moderngreekverbs.com.
  5. "Stevedores – definition of stevedores by The Free Dictionary". TheFreeDictionary.com.
  6. "America on the Move collection". Archived from the original on June 12, 2007.
  7. Paul Hellyer Papers, Library and Archives Canada, MG32 B33, Vol. 251.
  8. Hazzard, Shirley (2008). The Ancient Shore: Dispatches from Naples.
  9. Horejs, Barbara (2003). Ports of Trade: Al Mina and Geometric Greek Pottery in the Levant.
  10. Casson, Lionel (1959). The Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times.
  11. Casson, Lionel (1994). Seafaring in Ancient Times.
  12. Meier, Dirk (October 15, 2009). Seafarers, Merchants, and Pirates in the Middle Ages.
  13. "The position of dockers and sailors in 1897 and the International Federation of Ship, Dock and River Workers". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  14. "Labor on the Waterfront". South Street Seaport Museum. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  15. "The ILWU Story". ILWU. Retrieved 2024-02-14.
  16. Container Terminals and Cargo Systems: Design, Operations Management, and Logistics Control Issues. By Kap Hwan Kim (Editor), Hans-Otto Günther (Editor). Springer. 2007.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  17. Marc Levinson (2006). The Box, How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger . Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN   0-691-12324-1.
  18. "Uniform Containerization of Freight: Early Steps in the Evolution of an Idea". Business History Review . 43 (1): 84–87. 1969. doi:10.2307/3111989. JSTOR   3111989. S2CID   246479077.
  19. Standing on the Stones BFI Film and TV Database, London Dockers (1964)
  20. "shape-up". Dictionary.com. Random House Unabridged Dictionary. Retrieved 2008-05-15.
  21. Blum, Howard (March 13, 1978). "The 'Shape-Up' on Piers Gives Way to 'Show- Up'" . The New York Times. Retrieved 2019-10-13.
  22. "British History in depth: Banners of the British Labour Movement". BBC.
  23. Plunkett, Geoff (2014). Death by Mustard. Big Sky. ISBN   978-1-922132-91-8.
  24. Board, United States National Labor Relations (1993). Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board. National Labor Relations Board.
  25. Kawaguchi, Miki (November 2014). "Negotiations and Agreements of Labor Unions and Employers in the Industrial Sector in Japan" (PDF). 日本労働研究雑誌 (Japan Labour Research Journal).
  26. Walsh, John (1982-03-26). "EDB Causes a Regulatory Ripple Effect". Science. 215 (4540): 1593. doi:10.1126/science.215.4540.1593. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   17788469.
  27. Fisher, James T. (2010). On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York.
  28. Arnesen, Eric (1994). Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class, and Politics, 1863–1923.
  29. Hollowak, Thomas L. (1996). A History of Polish Longshoremen and Their Role in the Establishment of a Union at the Port of Baltimore. Baltimore: History Press.
  30. 1 2 Delich, Helen. "Noted for Fast, Efficient Work Baltimore System of Operating is Termed Ideal for All Ports." Baltimore Sun, 1955.
  31. Delich, Helen. "Ganging Up on the Water Front." Baltimore Sun, 1954.
  32. MacKay, Peter (August 25, 2012). "Peter MacKay learned to appreciate Arctic life working as a stevedore". National Post . Retrieved March 13, 2023.
  33. Rapf, Joanna E. (2003). On the Waterfront. Cambridge University Press.
  34. Epstein, Arthur D. (1965). "A Look at A View from the Bridge". Texas Studies in Literature and Language. 7 (1): 109–122.
  35. Warren, Kenneth W. (2011). "Sociology and The Wire". Critical Inquiry. 38 (1): 200–207. doi:10.1086/661649. S2CID   161316328.
  36. Herbert, Daniel (2012). "'It Is What It Is': The Wire and the Politics of Anti-Allegorical Television Drama". Quarterly Review of Film and Video. 29 (3): 191–202. doi:10.1080/10509200903120047. S2CID   155014315.
  37. Porrello, Rick (2011). Kill the Irishman. Simon and Schuster.

Further reading