ABSTRACT
Historically, the port of New York has been by far the largest in the United States. In 1849, more than 3,000 ships sailed or steamed into New York harbour, carrying half the nation's imports and nearly a third of its exports. The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) supported the shape-up, because it swelled the number of union members, kept their dues flowing into the ILA treasury, and offered union officials numerous ways to pad their pockets via 'kickbacks' and other forms of graft. Maritime capital remained fragmented and resistant to the influence of rational social engineering; and government remained responsive to the pull of local and narrowly sectoral interest groups. The hard-drinking, hard-swearing longshoreman of legend was often a family man who struggled against great odds to provide for his wife and children, engaging in a race with time against injury and the physical debilitation that years of dock labour inevitably wrought.
