The longshoremen and harbor workers were heavily influenced by the tide of organized labor sweeping across the country in the late 19 th and early 20 th century. They saw miners, railroad men and factory hands join unions and win concessions; they felt energized, with good examples under their noses. And the broader labor movement hasn’t only supported but provided entire networks of communication and strategy. Flyers were being passed out on the docks, leaders of other Unions were indited to speak at rallies and workers began to feel that they would be part of a larger struggle for dignity for working people in America. More than anything, the labor movement offered dockworkers a simple sense that something could be done despite overwhelming corporate resistance.
Strikes as Resistance.
Because the dockworkers felt themselves in control, strikes were the most obvious weapon of change. Those first work stoppages tended to be tiny, but rich with symbolism. For as long as we could remember, when ordinary longshoremen declined to load or unload ships all together, they could also prevent the shipment of goods, actually blocking commerce in a prehistoric society. Strikes, however, were not peaceful most of the time. Shipping owners would frequently bring in strikebreakers, or use private security to intimidate picketers, since such workers are willing to work under dangerous circumstances. These clashes were often armed and the state intervened on the workers’ side in an effort to restore order. But, even in the face of such hazard, longshoremen’s remarkable courage planted kernels of strength and demonstrated that solidarity could momentarily level the playing field between a powerful corporation or an exposed laborer.
to Encounter Rough Opposition and Suffering.
It wasn’t an easy thing to organize on the waterfront. If they were allowed to gain power, just forget how the employer would act without it; It was seen as a threat to profit and domination by the boss and they acted accordingly? Workers who had been vocally in favor of unions were sometimes blacklisted and could not be hired in any harbor. Others were bullied or assaulted by hired thugs. Even the police had often been employed to break crowds or protect strike-breakers, meaning the system was slanted in defense not against its own working people at all as a concept is a little questionable. However, the determination of dockworkers intensified. Every loss, every fight was a sub-chapter of a larger story of resistance, reinforcing their belief that without organization they would always be voiceless.
The Emergence of a Collective Awareness.
Likely the most important change effectuated through the early organizing effort was the development of a longshoremen’s identity as a whole. They no longer considered themselves as private workers, scrambling for daily jobs only but they felt that they were members of a larger group of workers, striving to obtain their common rights. It wasn’t a unity that was forged overnight, it came from struggle, and miserable strikes and death marches – a million meetings to thrash out ideas and new plans. Not only the space of labor, but also a place of solidarity in which they were tested, developed and sometimes even strengthened. This nascent group identity would serve as the platform upon which formal organizations like the American Longshoremen\ and Harbor Workers Union would eventually emerge and make their imprint on history.