A Shipping Terminal in Oakland Undergoing Change

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                  A Shipping Terminal in Oakland Undergoing Change

                                      A Longshore Workers View 

                          

 

by Joel Schor

I have worked in the maritime industry since the late 1990’s, inland and deep sea as a deck seaman, boatswain and some as a mate. In the last decade or so I have become a stevedore or “longshoreman”, working out of the same port I began my seagoing career several decades ago. With all the travel, around the clock hours, and labor intensive nature of it, I have developed a sense of compassion and respect for certain aspects of this work. Watching the sun rise and fall over the ocean horizon and waterfront is a way to understand the complex and beautiful workings of the tides and atmospheric conditions of earth. These things cannot be understood or controlled according to the science of capitalism as much as it would claim. 

 

As state department academics debate “The Problem of Control” over what they call “Artificial Intelligence”, labor unions are finding they have less and less real control over their changing day to day work environment. Particularly in regards to the traditions of worker control on the West Coast which were forged in the days of the coastal industry wide strikes of the 1930’s. For seaman this resulted in obtaining independence from the government shipping board and for longshoreman it was the end of the employer controlled shape up. In both cases work rules which established conditions for work units or gangs, hours of work in port and at sea, and ultimately control over hiring. 

 

It is interesting that this era of the industrial union movement, what has been called “Labor’s Giant Step”, was preceded by a defeated West Coast Maritime strike in 1920. Certain aspects of automation, which were to be more pronounced in the 1960’s and 70’s, were foreshadowed in this earlier era. Leading up to the big strikes and after the first World War, the employers were able to dictate the terms of the mechanization. Dock side gas-electric powered stevedoring equipment and ship turbines replaced steam power which in turn displaced workers. 

 

  “As the work got faster, companies demanded more of labor; smaller gangs worked longer shifts - up to 36 hours”…” -  Corbett - Port City, the History and Transformation of the Port of San Francisco 1848 - 2010

 

The investment of fixed capital, whether it be electric machinery, container handling equipment, or Artificial Intelligence all lead to similar outcomes.  A consequent reduction in variable capital - ie the number of workers in industry, working longer hours with worsening conditions. An account of the conditions inside an American auto plant in the late 1970’s when new models were being rolled out on the assembly line is further illustrative of this tendency;

 

“Speed-up and the 54 hour work week remained the order of the day, in spite of the cut-backs. More profits could still be made by working fewer and fewer workers harder and longer than by any other method.” - Detroit : I Do Mind Dying, The 54 Hour Work Week

 

Marx’s Capital Volume III, section XIV breaks down this historical trend. The declining rate of profit in industry. As the capitalist increases the ratio of their investment to more fixed capital in relation to variable capital, the capitalists profits per unit of production is decreased. Therefore the capitalist must produce more units, things - widgets, container moves, in order to realize the same profit as before the fixed capital investment was made. Competition between capitalists who automate, drives them to reduce labor costs further. That is in order to maintain and gain market share. Foreign trade, wars and tariffs all play a role in this story by staving off the costs of fixed capital inputs. Acquisition of rare earths are important to manufacturing the infrastructure of mechanization and Artificial Intelligence with batteries for storage and computational power. Conversely these global trends can also serve to increase markets and demand for the capitalists widgets and services, thereby increasing the need and overall investment in fixed capital.

 

On the West Coast of the United States there has already been full scale automation of container ports in the Los Angeles and Long Beach area. The nature of the labor saving technology in ports is based on what is known as machine learning Artificial Intelligence. It is similar to the driverless cars we see in cities. Basically, cargo handling machines such as cranes, trucks and lifts which had been individually operated by humans at shipping terminals are being replaced by robots using a combination of generative and input derived outcome or “intelligence”. In stevedoring the machines need to communicate with each other according to a logistics plan for loading and unloading ships. Therefore the technology also uses what is known as IT or the internet of things which is reliant on a 5G networ . Various “nodes” or machines are controlled by fewer centralized operators at control stations, and the “learning” aspect of the machines is done in part by humans as well. 

 

The primary union representing dock workers at all ports along the coast, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union ILWU, agreed in 2008 contract negotiations with the stevedoring employers - Pacific Maritime Association - that automation would be allowed to continue as long as the union maintained jurisdiction over Maintenance and Repair (mechanic) jobs. On the East Coast the International Longshore Association ILA which bargains with the USMX made a publicity campaign in early 2020’s, stating they would accept “NO AUTOMATION”. Yet at the time their leader, Harold Dagget, made this defiant macho statement on YouTube, semi automated ports were already in use at the larger ports in the Newark New Jersey area… As of now, the only fully automated ports on the West Coast are in the larger ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach where larger ships with more container volume come in primarily as imports from Asia. The port of Oakland where I work and live has had smaller and medium sized vessels which are both imports as well as exports. The exports from our port are primarily agricultural from the Central Valley. They serve to feed the many factory workers in Asia and abroad who can no loner grow their own food as they have moved to factories in cities.

 

From what I see happening at the port of Oakland the transition to automation is well underway and in the formative stages of layout. A company which was amongst the forerunners of the automation in Southern California has acquired a vast new swath of terminal property comprising an area around the old Army base at the foot of the Bay Bridge. In addition they have bought several Super Post Panamax large sized cranes capable of working some of the largest container ships up to 15 to 20 thousand TEU or tonnage equivalency units (basically a 20 foot container). There are now dredges in the outer harbor taking up silt and mud on to barges so that the waters will be deep enough to accommodate the drafts of the larger container ships of this capacity.  It will take some years to get the new cranes assembled and in operating condition. 

 

Yet the handwriting is on the wall…This particular terminal already has cargo handling equipment with the hardware installed allowing it to be switched over to remote control. To put the complete automated terminal into operation a brownfielding construction effort would probably be necessary. That would be to establish the 5G network and get all the machines and logistics IT systems in place. This is not unprecedented. The same company was the first to automate yard equipment and was outpaced by others in the Southern California area.

 

To emphasize I am not an IT or computer science professional. I obtained a six year liberal arts degree and worked for most of my life as a blue collar worker. I have an extensive background in the industry, and I have a passion for many of the maritime traditions I was taught from rope work and navigation to cargo handling and ship maintenance. Many of these traditions involve an aspect of controlling the work, making it safe, and working at such a pace that preserves our jobs and livelihoods. Containerization wiped out many of the old ways of piece handling for longshore workers, and some jobs such as carpenters on merchant ships. Much of the conditions which came about in the wake of the containerization era were negotiated by unions in the heyday of US capitalist post World War II boom times. For the ILWU that was the Mechanization and Modernization agreement which precipitated one of the longest strikes in US history in the 70’s. In the end employers were willing to offer generous packages for early retirement in exchange for phasing out work rules relating to gang sizes and sling load limits. 

 

The era we are heading into now is from a different vantage point in terms of unions and employer negotiations. US capitalism has been on the decline for decades. As well as the imperialist position of America in the world. The “AI” phase automation to come will not only decrease the amount of jobs in the industry overall. It will create further social alienation for young people through the precarious nature of the remote and dispersed technology. Also it will create retirement instability for older workers because of the fewer new workers paying into a pension fund. Leadership of the unions and organizations is certainly a problem in that no alternatives are offered to challenge these outcomes. Yet just as important, the health of the unions and working class organizations which must be rebuilt and revitalized.

 

There are ways of ruling on the job based on both tradition and foresight. More importantly, of what we can ascertain by critically looking at our current situation. 

In all we cannot fight the displacement, alienation and insecurity inherent in the capitalist business cycle if we don’t have both the will to propose an alternative, and at the same time a comprehensive understanding of our ecological future. Longshore workers have been able to preserve their jobs despite automation at around a 50% reduction from their peak numbers. This is much less of a reduction compared to other industrial jobs such as mining, steel and shipyards. Longshore work has been able to continue to be somewhat viable due to the multifold increase in foreign trade in the last several decades, and also supply chains based on retail concentration and mass consumption. 

This cannot be the model to preserve industrial jobs of the future. Especially as ships get bigger and bigger their operational lifespans decrease. They must be scrapped more often because of hull cracks and stress damage from the massive amounts cargo they carry. Dumping these massive hulks of steel, electronics, and components in India and other places that are little documented does not bode well for the oceans and the people who live nearby.  There will be no jobs on ships and no retirement worth living if populations are continually poisoned by plastic nano particles from cheap disposable merchandise and the oceans, tides and winds destroy the areas we operate and co- exist with.  

 

The last era of anti-globalization and occupy activism did not bring together the industrial working class and broader activist groups in a way which could relevantly address these problems. Calling for a workers party and a list of programmatic demands may be a step in the right direction. But it is not enough! We need a strong open minded culture of critical thinking that is widespread and accepted as a useful alternative to the dominant view of science as it is.   

Joel Schor

 

Member of International  Longshore and Warehouse Union local 10, Former member of the Sailors Union of the Pacific and substitute teacher for the Oakland Unified School District.  joelschor@comcast.net