So, in 1960 the ILWU (West Coast Longshoremen) under the leadership of Harry Bridges negotiated the Mechanization and Modernization Agreement. This agreement did three main things. It allowed for the containerization of all freight save for obvious bulk cargoes like grain and coal, and, it reduced, hugely, the number of employees employed by the freight operators on the docks and lastly, it established a THREE tiered employment schedule dividing the works into 3 different castes. There was a lot of opposition to this agreement.
The model now for the newer agreements on automation by totally eliminating all longshoremen save for technicians are the various fully automated docks in places like Singapore, Rotterdam and few others. It is an attack on the most militant sectors of the working class. David PS...the main motivation for the M&M agreement in the 1960s was not to undermine class unity on the docks, though it did that too, but was to cut down and stamp out pilfering of goods transported by ship, mostly by organized crime. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#34215): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/34215 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/110242875/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
