View source for Dockworker

{{short description|Occupation of loading and unloading ships}}
[[Image:stevedores ny 1912.jpg|thumb|250px|Longshoremen on a [[New York Harbor|New York]] dock load barrels onto a barge on the [[Hudson River]]. Photograph by [[Lewis Hine]], {{circa}}&nbsp;1912.]]
[[Image:Hafenarbeiter bei der Verladung von Sackgut - MS Rothenstein NDL, Port Sudan 1960.png|thumb|250px|Dockers load bagged cargo onto a barge in [[Port Sudan]], 1960]]

A '''dockworker''' (also called a '''docker''', '''longshoreman''', '''lumper''', '''stevedore''', '''wharfie''', or '''wharfman''') is a [[Dock (maritime)|waterfront]] manual laborer who loads and unloads [[ship]]s.<ref>{{cite web|title=Dockworker|work=[[Dictionary.com]]|edition=|url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/dockworker|access-date=August 27, 2023}}</ref>

As a result of the [[Intermodal container|intermodal shipping container]] revolution, the required number of dockworkers has declined by over 90% since the 1960s.<ref name="khan">{{cite web |last1=Khan |first1=Khalil U. |title=Stevedoring & The Role of Stevedores in Shipping |url=https://www.iims.org.uk/the-role-of-stevedores-in-shipping/ |website=The International Institute of Marine Surveying (IIMS) |access-date=7 April 2021 |date=15 September 2014}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=April 2025|reason=Article makes no mention on containers' impacts to employment numbers}}

==Etymology==
The word ''stevedore'' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|t|i:|v|ɪ|ˌ|d|oʊr|}}) originated in [[Portugal]] or [[Spain]], and entered the [[English language]] through its use by [[sailor]]s.<ref name="Maclachlan1875">{{cite book|author=David Maclachlan|title=A Treatise on the Law of Merchant Shipping|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8WVMAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA387|year=1875|publisher=W. Maxwell & Son|pages=387–}}</ref> It started as a [[phonetic spelling]] of ''estivador'' ([[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]) or ''estibador'' ([[Spanish language|Spanish]]), meaning ''a man who loads ships and stows cargo'', which was the original meaning of ''stevedore'' (though there is a secondary meaning of "a man who stuffs" in Spanish); compare [[Latin]] ''stīpāre'' meaning ''to stuff'', as in ''to fill with stuffing''. In Ancient and Modern Greek, the verb στοιβάζω (stivazo) means pile up.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://moderngreekverbs.com/stoibazo.html|title=Modern Greek Verbs – στοιβάζω, στοίβαξα, στοιβάχτηκα, στοιβαγμένος – I pile up|website=moderngreekverbs.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/stevedores|title=Stevedores – definition of stevedores by The Free Dictionary|work=TheFreeDictionary.com}}</ref> In [[Great Britain]] and [[Ireland]], people who load and unload ships are usually called ''dockers''; in [[Australia]], they are called ''stevedores'', ''dockworkers'' or ''wharfies''; and, in the [[United States]] and [[Canada]], the term ''longshoreman'', derived from ''man-along-the-shore'' (or {{wikt-lang|en|alongshore}} + ''man''), is used.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/ONTHEMOVE/collection/object_199.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612014852/http://www.americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/collection/object_199.html|url-status=dead|title=America on the Move collection|archivedate=June 12, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Harper |first1=Douglas |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/longshoreman#etymonline_v_12416 |title=longshoreman (n.)|website=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |access-date=1 October 2024 |ref=oned}}</ref> Before the extensive use of container ships and shore-based handling machinery in the United States, ''longshoremen'' referred exclusively to the dockworkers, while ''stevedores'', part of  a separate [[trade union]], worked on the ships operating their [[crane (machine)|crane]]s and moving cargo.

==History==
Dockworkers, also known as longshoremen and stevedores, have existed since ancient times. The role of dockworkers has evolved significantly over the centuries as maritime trade has grown and modernized:

* '''Ancient times''': The [[Phoenicia|Phoenicians]], [[Greeks]], and [[Roman people|Romans]] all relied on dockworkers to load and unload cargo from ships at port cities such as [[Carthage]], [[Athens]], and [[Ostia Antica|Ostia]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hazzard |first=Shirley |title=The Ancient Shore: Dispatches from Naples |year=2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Horejs |first=Barbara |title=Ports of Trade: Al Mina and Geometric Greek Pottery in the Levant |date=2003}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Casson |first=Lionel |title=The Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times |date=1959}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Casson |first=Lionel |title=Seafaring in Ancient Times |year=1994}}</ref>
* '''Medieval period''': In the [[Middle Ages]], dockworkers played a crucial role in the trade networks of [[Europe]]. [[Hanseatic League|The Hanseatic League]], a powerful trading confederation in Northern Europe, employed dockworkers to handle goods at major ports like [[Lübeck]] and [[Bruges]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meier |first=Dirk |title=Seafarers, Merchants, and Pirates in the Middle Ages |date=October 15, 2009}}</ref>
* '''Industrial Revolution''': [[Industrial Revolution|The Industrial Revolution]] brought [[Steamboat|steam-powered ships]] and [[Rail transport|railways]], leading to increased trade volumes and the need for more efficient handling of cargo. Dockworkers organized into unions to protect worker rights and improve working conditions, leading to the formation of organizations such as the [[International Longshoremen's Association]] in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The position of dockers and sailors in 1897 and the International Federation of Ship, Dock and River Workers |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/mann-tom/1897/dockers1897.htm |access-date=2024-02-14 |website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>
* '''Containerization''': The latter 20th century saw the introduction of [[containerization]], which revolutionized the shipping industry by standardizing how goods were transported, leading to faster turnaround times and increased efficiency. Dockworker use declined by 90%, with those remaining principally operating heavy machinery such as cranes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Labor on the Waterfront |url=https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/labor-on-the-waterfront/ |access-date=2024-02-14 |website=South Street Seaport Museum |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The ILWU Story |url=https://www.ilwu.org/history/the-ilwu-story/ |access-date=2024-02-14 |website=ILWU |language=en-US}}</ref> A dramatic increase in [[international trade|global trade]] was seen, a result of improved technology and liberalized trade treaties.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Container Terminals and Cargo Systems: Design, Operations Management, and Logistics Control Issues |publisher=Springer |editor-first=Kap Hwan |editor-last=Kim |editor-first2=Hans-Otto |editor-last2=Günther |year=2007}}</ref>

==Loading and unloading ships==
{{Admiralty law}}
Loading and unloading ships requires knowledge of the operation of loading equipment, the proper techniques for lifting and stowing [[cargo]], and the correct handling of [[hazardous material]]s. In addition, workers must be physically strong and able to follow orders attentively. Many longshoremen are needed to unload a ship. A ship can only be at a port for a limited amount of time, so their work must be completed quickly.

In earlier days before the introduction of [[containerization]], men who loaded and unloaded ships had to tie down cargoes with rope. A type of [[stopper knot]] is called the [[stevedore knot]]. Securely tying up parcels of goods is called ''stevedore lashing'' or ''stevedore knotting''. While loading a [[Break bulk cargo|general cargo]] vessel, they use [[dunnage]], which are pieces of wood (or nowadays sometimes strong inflatable [[dunnage bag]]s) set down to keep the cargo out of any water that might be lying in the hold or are placed as [[shim (engineering)|shims]] between cargo crates for [[load securing]].

Today, the vast majority of non-[[bulk cargo]] is transported in [[intermodal container]]s.<ref name="box">{{cite book | author = Marc Levinson | title = The Box, How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger | publisher = Princeton Univ. Press | year = 2006 | url = https://archive.org/details/boxhowshippin00levi | isbn = 0-691-12324-1 | url-access = registration }}</ref> The containers arrive at a port by truck, rail, or another ship and are stacked in the port's storage area. When the vessel that will be transporting them arrives, the containers it is offloading are unloaded by a crane. The containers either leave the port by truck or rail or are stored until they are placed on another ship. Once the ship is offloaded, the containers it leaves with are brought to the dock by truck. A crane lifts the containers from the trucks onto the ship. As the containers pile up on the ship, the workers connect them to the vessel and the other already-placed containers. The jobs involved include the crane operators, the workers who connect the containers to the ship and each other, the truck drivers who transport the containers from the dock and storage area, the workers who track the containers in the storage area as they are loaded and unloaded, as well as various supervisors. Those workers at the port who handle and move the containers are likely to be considered stevedores or dockworkers.

Before containerization, freight was often handled with a [[longshoreman’s hook]], a tool which became emblematic of the profession (mainly on the west coast of the United States and Canada).<ref>{{cite journal |year=1969 |title=Uniform Containerization of Freight: Early Steps in the Evolution of an Idea |journal=[[Business History Review]] |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=84–87 |doi= 10.2307/3111989|jstor=3111989 |s2cid=246479077 }}</ref>

Traditionally, stevedores had no fixed job but would arrive at the docks in the morning seeking employment for the day. [[Port of London|London]] dockers called this practice ''standing on the stones'',<ref>Standing on the Stones [https://web.archive.org/web/20071112112747/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/473673?view=synopsis BFI Film and TV Database, London Dockers (1964)]</ref> while in the United States, it was referred to as ''shaping up'' or assembling for the ''shape-up''.<ref>{{cite web
  | publisher = Random House Unabridged Dictionary
  |website=Dictionary.com
  | title = shape-up| url = http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/shape%20up
  | access-date = 2008-05-15 }}
</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Blum |first=Howard |date=March 13, 1978 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/03/13/archives/new-jersey-pages-the-shapeup-on-piers-gives-way-to-showup-the.html |url-access=subscription |title=The 'Shape-Up' on Piers Gives Way to 'Show- Up' |work=The New York Times |access-date=2019-10-13}}</ref>

Dock workers have been a prominent part of the modern [[labor movement]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/banners_01.shtml|title=British History in depth: Banners of the British Labour Movement|publisher=[[BBC]]}}</ref>

<gallery class="center" widths="150" heights="100" caption="Container handling in [[Hong Kong]] – 2005">
File:Hong Kong 2005 auf Reede, zwei Bargen mit Kränen an Backbord fest.jpg|At anchor, two [[barges]] with cranes (floating derricks) at port
File:Ein Container wird von Deck gehievt.jpg|A container is lifted from the deck.
File:Hafenarbeiter bei ihrer gefährlichen Arbeit auf den Containern in der Luke.jpg|Dockworkers on the containers in the ship's hatch
File:Starker Gezeitenstrom, Ladungsarbeiten bei schwierigen Arbeitsbedingungen.jpg|Strong tidal current, loading work in adverse conditions
</gallery>

==Notable dockworkers==
{{More citations needed section|date=April 2021}}
Former stevedores and dockworkers include:
* [[Crispus Attucks]] – American patriot
* [[Harry Bridges]] – founder of the [[International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)]]
* [[Joey Coyle]] – basis for the movie ''[[Money for Nothing (1993 film)|Money for Nothing]]''
* [[Jack Dash]] – British dock workers' trade union leader
* [[Peter Fraser]] – Prime Minister of New Zealand (1940–1949)
* [[Danny Greene]] – American mobster
* [[Eric Hoffer]] – philosopher and social critic
* [[P. J. Kennedy|Patrick Joseph "P.J." Kennedy]] – American businessman and grandfather of 35th U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]]
* [[Keith William Richards]] – Actor
* [[Artie Lange]] – actor and comedian 
* [[Tom Mann]] – British trade unionist and organizer of the [[London Dock Strike of 1889]]
* [[Peter MacKay]] – Canadian former government minister and conservative party leader (a stevedore for two summers while a teenager)<ref>{{cite web |first=Peter |last=MacKay |author-link=Peter MacKay |url=https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/summer-jobs-as-a-young-man-peter-mackay-learned-to-appreciate-arctic-life-working-as-a-stevedore |title=Peter MacKay learned to appreciate Arctic life working as a stevedore |website=[[National Post]] |date=August 25, 2012 |access-date=March 13, 2023}}</ref>
* [[Bruce Nelson (historian)|Bruce Nelson]] – labor historian, author of ''[[Workers on the Waterfront]]''
* [[Benito Quinquela Martín]] – [[painter]] from [[Buenos Aires]], Argentina. His works reflect the work at the docks in La Boca, a portuary district of Buenos Aires. 
* [[Stan Weir (academic)|Stan Weir]] – blue-collar intellectual and sociologist, founder of [[Singlejack Press]]

<!--the list is alphabetical by the last name-->

==In popular culture==
*In 1949, reporter [[Malcolm Johnson (journalist)|Malcolm Johnson]] was awarded a [[Pulitzer Prize]] for a 24-part investigative series titled ''Crime on the Waterfront'', published in the ''[[New York Sun (historical)|New York Sun]]''. 
*The material from Malcolm Johnson's investigative series was fictionalized and used as a basis for the influential film ''[[On the Waterfront]]'' (1954), starring [[Marlon Brando]] as a longshoreman, and the working conditions on the docks figure significantly in the film's plot. ''On the Waterfront'' was a critical and commercial success that received twelve [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] nominations and won eight, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Brando, Best Supporting Actress for [[Eva Marie Saint]], and Best Director for [[Elia Kazan]]. The [[American Film Institute]] ranked it the 8th-greatest American movie of all time in 1997 and 19th in 2007.<ref>{{cite book|author=Rapf, Joanna E. |title=On the Waterfront|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date= 2003}}</ref>
*Playwright [[Arthur Miller]] was involved in the early stages of the development of ''On the Waterfront''; his play ''[[A View from the Bridge]]'' (1955) also deals with the troubled life of a longshoreman.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Epstein, Arthur D. |title=A Look at A View from the Bridge|journal=Texas Studies in Literature and Language|volume= 7 |issue=1|date=1965|pages= 109–122}}</ref>
*In [[The Wire (season 2)|season 2]] of the [[HBO]] series ''[[The Wire (TV series)|The Wire]]'', which first aired in 2003, the Stevedore Union and its members working in Baltimore, particularly [[Frank Sobotka]], figure prominently in the second season's story.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Warren, Kenneth W. |title=Sociology and The Wire|journal=Critical Inquiry|volume= 38 |issue=1|date=2011 |pages=200–207|doi=10.1086/661649|s2cid=161316328}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Herbert, Daniel |title='It Is What It Is': The Wire and the Politics of Anti-Allegorical Television Drama|journal=Quarterly Review of Film and Video|volume=29|number=3 |date=2012|pages= 191–202|doi=10.1080/10509200903120047|s2cid=155014315}}</ref>
*The 2013 video game ''[[Grand Theft Auto V]]'' features a character, Floyd Hebert, who works as a longshoreman at the city port. One of the main characters, [[Trevor Philips]], uses Floyd's job to prepare a cargo ship robbery during the game's storyline.

==See also==
{{Portal|Transport}}
*[[1913 Sligo Dock strike]]
*[[Admiralty law]]
*[[Battle of Ballantyne Pier]] (Canada)
*[[Dockers Union (disambiguation)]]
*[[Dunnage]]
*[[Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union]]
*[[History of Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh longshoremen, 1863–1963]]
*[[International Longshore and Warehouse Union]] (United States)
*[[Liverpool dockers' strike (1995–98)]] (UK)
*[[Mersey Docks and Harbour Company]]
*[[Mudlark]] 
*[[National Union of Dock Labourers]]
*[[Scottish Union of Dock Labourers]]
*[[Teamster]]
*[[Weeks Marine]]
*[[2024 United States port strike]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Arnesen |first=Eric |title=Waterfront Workers of New Orleans: Race, Class, and Politics, 1863–1923 |year=1994 }}
* {{cite book |last=Connolly |first=Michael C. |title=Seated by the Sea: The Maritime History of Portland, Maine, and Its Irish Longshoremen |publisher=University Press of Florida |year=2010 }}
* Callebert, Ralph (2017). ''On Durban's Docks: Zulu Workers, Rural Households, Global Labor''. University of Rochester Press.
* {{cite book |last=Davis |first=Colin J. |title=Waterfront Revolts: New York and London Dockworkers, 1946–61 |year=2003 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Land |first=Isaac |title=Liberty on the Waterfront: American Maritime Culture in the Age of Revolution |journal=[[Journal of Social History]] |year=2007 |volume=40 |issue=3 |pages=731–743 |doi=10.1353/jsh.2007.0051 |s2cid=143564724 }}
* {{cite book |last=Mello |first=William J. |title=New York Longshoremen: Class and Power on the Docks |year=2010 }}
* {{cite book |last=Nelson |first=Bruce |title=Workers on the Waterfront: Seamen, Longshoremen, and Unionism in the 1930s |year=1990 }}
* {{cite book |last=Parnaby |first=Andrew |title=Citizen Docker: Making a New Deal on the Vancouver Waterfront, 1919–1939 |year=2008 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Phillips |first=Jim |title=Class and Industrial Relations in Britain: The 'Long' Mid-century and the Case of Port Transport, 1920–70 |journal=Twentieth Century British History |year=2005 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=52–73 |doi=10.1093/tcbh/hwi009 |url=http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/6663/1/6663.pdf }}
* {{cite journal |last=Safford |first=Jeffrey J. |title=The Pacific Coast Maritime Strike of 1936: Another View |journal=[[Pacific Historical Review]] |year=2008 |volume=77 |issue=4 |pages=585–615 |doi=10.1525/phr.2008.77.4.585 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Vaughan Wilson |first=Matt |title=The 1911 Waterfront Strikes in Glasgow: Trade Unions and Rank-and-File Militancy in the Labour Unrest of 1910–1914 |journal=[[International Review of Social History]] |year=2008 |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=261–292 |doi=10.1017/S0020859008003441 |doi-access=free }}
* {{cite journal |last=Velasco e Cruz |first=Maria Cecília |title=Puzzling Out Slave Origins in Rio de Janeiro Port Unionism: The 1906 Strike and the Sociedade de Resistência dos Trabalhadores em Trapiche e Café |journal=[[Hispanic American Historical Review]] |year=2006 |volume=86 |issue=2 |pages=205–245 |doi=10.1215/00182168-2005-002 }}
* {{cite web |url=https://depts.washington.edu/dock/longshore_intro.shtml |title=Longshore Workers and Their Unions |work=[[Waterfront Workers History Project]] }}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wiktionary|dockworker|stevedore|longshoreman|docker}}
* [http://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/1124/page/1605/display "The Irish on the Docks of Portland"] by Michael Connolly

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Marine occupations]]