Labor's spatial praxis and the geography of contract bargaining in the US east coast longshore industry, 1953–1989

Abstract

This paper examines the production of new geographical scales of contract bargaining in the United States east coast longshore industry during the post-Second World War period. In particular, it analyses how the International Longshoremen's Association, which represents east coast waterfront workers, forged a national contract in response to political challenges by a rival union and economic challenges brought about by the introduction of new labor-saving technologies such as containerization. As a means to equalize working conditions in ports from Maine to Texas the union used strikes, work slowdowns, legal action, political pressure and cargo-handling boycotts to force reluctant employers in 1957 to agree to a master contract covering the North Atlantic ports. Upon completion of negotiations in the North Atlantic, the terms of this master contract were also usually adopted by ports in the South Atlantic and Gulf regions. The implementation of a master contract represented a significant change from the system of port-by-port bargaining which had traditionally dominated labor relations in the industry. In response, employers subsequently felt compelled to restructure their own organization so that by the 1970s a number of regional employer groups had formed throughout the industry to negotiate for several ports at once. Following its success in securing a regional master contract, in 1977 the union negotiated a national agreement covering a number of items related to job security. However, during the 1980s the increasing costs of the union's contracts encouraged many West Gulf employers to turn to cheaper non-union labor to the point where, in 1986, 11 locals in this region broke with the national union and offered concessions as a means to preserve work for their members. This schism poses a significant threat to the union's efforts to continue ensuring that all dockers enjoy the same basic contractual rights. The paper shows how struggles over the scale at which bargaining takes place have been fundamental to the development of the industry's economic geography. Furthermore, the fact that groups of dockers adopted an explicitly geographical response to the threat of job loss raises questions about how workers' activities are theorized in explanations of the production of the economic geography of capitalism.