The Fruits of Early Sacrifice.
But by the middle of the 20 th century, the American Longshoremen and Harbor Workers Union was an institution that stood as a symbol of power, solidarity and oneness.
The gains that dockworkers had made during this period in no way constituted a miracle, but were the result of decades of struggle.
The seeds of reform had been sown by those who walked picket lines in the first half the twentieth century —
and who’d been in the teeth of cops, and on employer blacklists, and through economic hard times.
Their sacrifices ensured that generations of future longshoremen could walk the docks with more dignity, better pay and far less danger.
Each of the contracts, every strike victory and each point of struggle faced on the employers’ terms were imprinted
under the future course of the union as lessons learned that there was nothing to be gained without cost.
Teaching a Culture of Pride and Solidarity.
Besides pay and hours, the other thing that a union provided was pride and unity among the membership.
What had once been regarded as slave driven and precarious labor of the longshoreman was turned into a sustained profession in the American economy.
It was this culture which the union created and that of ensuring that workers did not see themselves as individuals coming to be at work on any specific day,
but rather part of a broader fraternity who were all together fighting this.”
It was not just the place where workers were organized in the union, it was a place that we could talk to each other,
celebrate with each other and also because there’s many times when one comrade or another needed consoling.
It has developed into a culture of solidarity which that has been handed on to each new generation,
so that dockers were bound together in this culture faced with future challenges.
Constructing Standards Outside the Waterfront.
Setting Benchmarks For The Other Sectors.
The achievements of the American Longshoremen and Harbor Workers Union were not confined to its docks,
but rather resonatedthroughout the professional world of labor in the United States.
The wage, hourly and safety regulations conquests presented a physical representation of
what could be accomplished by workers gaining cohesion to speak as one.
For industries like steel, coal, railroads and manufacturing the union became a promise kept;
“they had seen that entrenched systems of oppression could be challenged, can change”.
Employers of workers in these industries for whom change had once seemed unthinkable now confronted more united workforces,
buoyed by the precedent which loomed large from the waterfront.
Restructuring Labor Fairness.
Perhaps the single best thing that the union did, in fact, was change the national discourse on what fairness would truly look like in the work place.
But now, they have the moral temerity to question anything less along the way despite things like danger soil conditions,
backbreaking hours and suspect hiring practices being largely accepted as cost of doing business.
This conversation was reframed by the American Longshoremen and Harbor Workers Union that some basic dignity is not a privilege — it’s a right.
Their contracts were not just for better pay but also included the concept that employees deserved to be valued, stable and protected.
This new appreciation of fairness also set a marker to which many other unions as well as labor movements looked not only in policy terms,
but at the workplace level across America.