ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a wider study of longshoremen undertaken as an anthropologist in St Johns, Newfoundland, and more fully reported elsewhere. It examines how 'normal' work roles are adapted to serve the needs of institutionalized pilferage, how this influences relationships on the dock – particularly within the dock work gang and how the men involved perceive their actions in terms of a prevailing morality. One strand of the bargain gained by the men is job security – another is access to pilferag. The gang is the unit of work and leisure. The techniques governing pilferage can be explained only in the context of normal work roles and their organization. The enforced idleness contributes to the high incidence of pilferage from ships' holds. Hatch checkers occupy a distinctive place in this pilferage system: theirs is the only work role to combine both facilities of access and support.
