Dockworker



A dockworker (also called a longshoreman, stevedore, or docker) is a waterfront manual laborer who loads and unloads ships.

As a result of the intermodal shipping container revolution, the required number of dockworkers declined by over 90% since the 1960s.

Etymology
The word stevedore originated in Portugal or Spain, and entered the English language through its use by sailors. 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. 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. Before the extensive use of container ships and shore-based handling machinery in the United States, longshoremen referred exclusively to the dockworkers, while stevedores, part of a separate trade union, worked on the ships operating their cranes and moving cargo.

History
Dockworkers, also known as longshoremen and stevedores, have existed since ancient times. The role of dockworkers has evolved significantly over the centuries as maritime trade has grown and modernized:


 * Ancient times: The Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans all relied on dockworkers to load and unload cargo from ships at port cities such as Carthage, Athens, and Ostia.
 * Medieval period: In the Middle Ages, dockworkers played a crucial role in the trade networks of Europe. The Hanseatic League, a powerful trading confederation in Northern Europe, employed dockworkers to handle goods at major ports like Lübeck and Bruges.
 * Industrial Revolution: The Industrial Revolution brought steam-powered ships and railways, leading to increased trade volumes and the need for more efficient handling of cargo. Dockworkers organized into unions to protect worker rights and improve working conditions, leading to the formation of organizations such as the International Longshoremen's Association in the United States.
 * Containerization: The latter 20th century saw the introduction of containerization, which revolutionized the shipping industry by standardizing how goods were transported, leading to faster turnaround times and increased efficiency. Dockworker use declined by 90%, with those remaining principally operating heavy machinery such as cranes. . A dramatic increase in global trade was seen, a result of improved technology and liberalized trade treaties.

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. 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).

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, while in the United States, it was referred to as shaping up or assembling for the shape-up.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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).

United States
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. In New Orleans there was a competition between the Irish and the blacks.

In the Port of Baltimore, Polish Americans dominated. In the 1930s, about 80% of Baltimore's dockworkers were Polish or of Polish descent. 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. 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. 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. 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, 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.



Notable dockworkers
Former stevedores and dockworkers include:
 * Crispus Attucks – American patriot
 * Harry Bridges – founder of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)
 * Joey Coyle – basis for the movie Money for Nothing
 * Jack Dash – British dock workers' trade union leader
 * Peter Fraser – Prime Minister of New Zealand (1940-1949)
 * Danny Greene – American mobster
 * Patrick Joseph "P.J." Kennedy – American businessman and grandfather of 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy
 * Tom Mann – British trade unionist and organizer of the London Dock Strike of 1889
 * Peter MacKay – Canadian former government minister and conservative party leader (a stevedore for two summers while a teenager)
 * Bruce Nelson – labor historian, author of Workers on the Waterfront
 * Benito Quinquela Martín – painter from Buenos Aires, Argentina. His works reflect the work at the docks in La Boca, a portuary district of Buenos Aires.
 * Stan Weir – blue-collar intellectual and sociologist, founder of Singlejack Press

In popular culture

 * In 1949, reporter Malcolm Johnson was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for a 24-part investigative series titled Crime on the Waterfront, published in the New York Sun.
 * The material from Malcolm Johnson's investigative series was fictionalized and used as a basis for the influential film On the Waterfront (1954), starring Marlon Brando as a longshoreman, and the working conditions on the docks figure significantly in the film's plot. On the Waterfront was a critical and commercial success that received twelve Academy Award nominations and won eight, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Brando, Best Supporting Actress for Eva Marie Saint, and Best Director for Elia Kazan. The American Film Institute ranked it the 8th-greatest American movie of all time in 1997 and 19th in 2007.
 * Playwright Arthur Miller was involved in the early stages of the development of On the Waterfront; his play A View from the Bridge (1955) also deals with the troubled life of a longshoreman.
 * In season 2 of the HBO series The Wire, which first aired in 2003, the Stevedore Union and its members working in Baltimore, particularly Frank Sobotka, figure prominently in the second season's story.