ABSTRACT
The rapidly expanding number of cargo containers moving through California ports has encouraged marine terminal operators to expand their use of new waterfront technology and challenged longshore labor to deal with new and innovative ways of moving cargo.
In this chapter we will study longshore labor, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), and their involvement with goods movement technologies in West Coast seaports. More specifically, we will delineate and discuss the union’s involvement in three technological phases, the events of which have been instrumental in molding, coloring, and tempering their view of changing goods movement practices. Such an understanding is essential to the future introduction of intelligent transportation technologies designed to make seaports more productive while at the same time maintaining the integrity of the longshore workforce.
246The three technological phases will include:
The union’s formative years and the break-bulk era, circa 1930–1959
Mechanization and modernization, circa 1960–2001
The years of expanding technology and the globalization of trade, circa 2002 to the present
The findings of this study are based on a review of primary and secondary sources, related mainly to the longshore industry and a review of the oral history of the ILWU. Personal interviews were also conducted with key union and industry leaders. From a rather unique perspective, study findings and conclusions are drawn from personal observations and experiences gained as a member of both ILWU Locals 13 and 63 for more than five decades and as the union’s senior liaison to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for more than two decades.
It should be noted that the opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this chapter are those of the author. They are not necessarily those of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, its officers, or individual members.
