And the work at the docks itself—dock breaking—was not only exhausting and precarious; it was hazardous. Heavy crates, barrels and machinery were lugged by hand or primitive machines and often in the mud on slick surfaces. Safety regulations were virtually non existent and protective equipments were rarely provided. The fatalities were falls, crush injuries and drowning. Many longshoremen recognized the peril of injury as a cost of doing business but behind the scenes, was sheer terror whenever someone’s loved one came to work. Death or permanent physical disability was not an uncommon result of the accidents and there were few measures or insurances which extended to injured workers; families had to take their own safety precautions out after such events. These bitter revelations underscored the need to change something and provided the emotional force for workers to come together.
The Frustration of Climate and the Resistance Seeds.
The long hours, low wages, dangerous working environment and corrupt hiring practices added to the discontent present amongst the dockworkers. It was a process through which most people who first felt impotent for the common inadequacies were later unified. Talk in the docks and local taverns would be sure to cover injustice and future reform. These conversations became small groups of workers talking about collective resistance. They began to realize that as individual employees, they were at the mercy of their employers’ products but as a collective group, they held great power. It was this sense of unity in struggle that produced organization movements and eventually unions such as ILA/Longshoremens Union. The grim reality of dock work was no mere backdrop to history, but the stuff from which the resolve for unity and change was fashioned.
The Waterfront The Creation of Organized Labor.
To Frustration to Collective Awareness.
Despite the fact that the shipping industry had become essential to America’s lifeblood, dockworkers were still tethered to harsh work, dangerous conditions and precarious work. Business grew, but the men who made it possible flourished in isolation and no one heard what they said or cared how they fared. I could feel frustration begin to build up over time. Longshoremen knew that no protest against the shipping giant would matter, even if they wanted to work overtime. This awakening ended in the conviction that none but their united power could make their wants to be impossible. The conversations on the docks began to change–not just grumbling about how they were being taken for a ride, but deeper queries into the meaning of justice and fairness, of solidarity.
Association and Informal Networks.
It was little, unofficial associations and not the Big Organizations that had their glorious beginnings. They organized in groups at taverns, boardinghouses and community halls to speak of their shared struggles. These assemblies were muffh frequent, and on them it was not unfrequent to introduce a lege Out of these conversations tiny sums of money began to be collected for the injured or jobless workers and from this time forward the spontaneous occurrence of what we call solidarity funds. They were unofficial, and employers did not know they existed,
but they helped workers learn to trust one another and develop the strength to stand on their feet together.
They laid the foundation on which would be constructed more formal — and powerful — labor movements in the future.