San Francisco Waterfront History
San Francisco Waterfront History
The San Francisco Waterfront
The Social
Consequences of Industrial Modernization
Part One; "The Good Old Days"
By Herb Mills
Page 16
Occasionally, however, a work-stoppage clearly had "a negotiating thrust," i.e., it was undertaken in the hope that the contract might be in some manner changed. In either case, the effectiveness of such action was essentially rooted in the employers' inescapable and ongoing dependency upon the experience, initiative, innovative skills, and good will of the men.
While the men were destined to evolve a great number of ways of collectively expressing and, therefore, experiencing their community with one another, job action was for years the mass, democratic form. It was also the most direct, immediate, and vibrant. As a collective expression and experience of community, job action was a veritable fountainhead of organizational elan and individual verve.
By concretely reminding the men of the nature of their struggle and of the means whereby disputes and grievances might be resolved to their satisfaction, it was also destined to play a vital role in their evolution and self-education as a community. Hence, the militancy of these men was in certain fundamentally important respects the most complete expression and embodiment of their occupational satisfaction.
The Community at work
In order to illustrate the ways in which the work performed by these men could generate such powerful "forces toward community" as have been delineated, that work may finally be depicted in some detail.
In this connection, then, it must first be noted that there was no "typical" workday. The diversity of cargo and operational circumstance was simply too great. Since, however, most jobs had a number of operational junctures, e.g., rigging the ship's gear, the discussion may focus upon those junctures in order to highlight what was most distinctive about the work.
Due to the nature of their work, all dock and hold men worked as a partner with one other man.
