Dock Workers

Workers who loaded and unloaded ships have formed a distinctive occupational group over the past two centuries. As trade expanded so the numbers of dock labourers increased and became concentrated in the major ports of the world. This ambitious two-volume project goes beyond existing individual studies of dock workers to develop a genuinely comparative international perspective over a long historical period. Volume 1 contains studies of 22 major ports worldwide. Built around an agreed framework of issues, these 'port studies' examine the type of workers who dominated dock labour, their race, class and ethnicity, the working conditions of dockers and the role of government as employer, arbitrator and supporter. The studies also detail how dockers organized their labour, patterns of strike action and involvement in political organizations. The structure of the port city is also outlined and descriptions given of the waterside environment. These areas of investigation form the basis for a series of 11 thematic studies which comprise Volume 2. Drawing on the information provided in the port studies, these essays identify important aspects and recurring themes, and explain how and why particular cases diverge from the rest. The final chapter of the book synthesizes the various approaches taken to offer a model which suggests several configurations of dock labour and presents suggestions for future research. This major scholarly achievement represents the most sustained attempt to date to provide a comparative international history of dock labour. An annotated bibliography completes this essential reference work.

Sam Davies, Colin J. Davis, David de Vries, Lex Heerma van Voss, Lidwij Hesselink, Klaus Weinhauer

Contents: Part One - Introduction: Towards a comparative international history of dockers, Sam Davies and Klaus Weinhauer; Part Two - Port Studies: Danish dock workers: Aarhus, 1870-1970, Svend Aage Andersen; Race and labour in a Southern U.S. port: New Orleans, 1860-1930, Eric Arneson; Dock labour in Le Havre, 1790-1970, John Barzman; Dockers of Turku, c.1880-1970, Kari TerÃ-s and Tapio Bergholm ; Longshoremen of San Francisco Bay, 1849-1960, Robert W. Cherny; 'To utilize the organized strength of all for the welfare of each': dock labour in St. John's, Newfoundland, 1880-1921, Jessie Chisholm; Port labour in a colonial society: Mombasa, 1850-1965, Frederick Cooper; The history of Hull dockers, c.1870-1960, Sam Davies; New York city and London, 1945-60, Colin J. Davis; Nationalism and the making of dock labour in British-ruled Palestine, David De Vries; New Zealand waterside workers in Auckland, Wellington and Lyttelton, 1915-51, Anna Green; Dock labour at Shanghai, Linda Cooke Johnson;The war of clubs: life, labour and struggles of the Tanga dockworkers, Frederick J. Kaijage; A struggle for recognition and independence: the growth and development of dock unionism at the port of Glasgow, c.1853-1932, William Kenefick; From guild membership to casualisation: dockworkers in Bremen, c.1860-1939, W. R. Lee; The port of London, 1790-1970, Roy Mankelow; Longshoremen in the port of New York, 1850-1940, Bruce Nelson; Undeserving casuals: Rotterdam dockers and their unions, 1880-1965, Erik Nijhof; Godis, tolis and mathadis: dock workers of Bombay, Mariam Dossal Panjwani; The history of dock labour: Liverpool, c.1850-1914, Eric Taplin; Waterfront labour at Fremantle, 1890-1990, Malcolm Tull; Dock labour in Hamburg: the labour market, the labour movement and industrial relations, 1880s-1960s, Klaus Weinhauer; Part Three - Thematic Studies: Dockworkers and labour history, Frederick Cooper; Formation and reproduction of dockers as an occupational group, Colin J. Davis; Th