It’s 3:30 p.m. and the dome-shaped hall near Pier 39 is alive with men and women laughing and eating, playing dominoes at one of the many tables scattered around the room, or watching sports on the big screen TV. Meanwhile in a small narrow office near the hall entrance, Frank Cresci, Jadine Trujillo and Frances Worsham-Lige are busy answering phones and writing information on white sheets of paper, preparing for the rush.

By 5:30 p.m. the trio quickly descends the yellow circular staircase and each person stands behind a glass window. The laid-back atmosphere takes an anxious turn when a dispatcher’s voice booms over the loudspeaker. It’s job dispatch time!

The group of men and women abandon the domino game, step away from the big screen and gather behind the red line that separates them from the two-level glass enclosed dispatch center, anxiously listening for their number to be called.

Some are registered (Class A and B) while others are un-registered (called ID’s and un-ID’s) but they come to the dispatch hall for the same purpose: to get work on the waterfront.

These men and women make up just a portion of the 1,400 longshoremen who work at Northern California terminals, loading and unloading cargo from ships.

On the surface longshoreman work appears simple enough. Good wages and the chance to join a respected union are incentives to join the profession. But the job of a longshoreman isn’t as simple as some may think. In fact it can be downright dangerous at times.

Carlos Minor is one of those people. A longshoreman for the past six years, Minor mainly works the day shift but occasionally he works at night (from 7:00 p.m. – 5:00 a.m.).

While he says the night shift is quieter due to the lack of outside truckers coming into the docks to pick up cargo it’s important to stay alert at all times, whether on the day or night shift.

Minor remembers an incident not too long ago where a worker accidentally smashed the cab of a truck with a container. The driver, who was in the truck when the crash occurred, had to be cut out of the truck. Luckily he suffered no harm. Another time a worker was accidentally hit in the chin by a 2x4 and required reconstructive surgery.

Minor makes sure to kiss his wife and two kids and to tell his family that he loves them before he goes to work. Despite the danger, men and women of San Francisco’s International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)’s Local 10 love what they do.
Minor says he can’t imagine doing anything else and if he can make it 40 years (like some of his co-workers) he will.

“I love it, it’s a part of me now,” Minor says.
Tradition seems to be important in the union. Felipe Riley, a longshoreman since 1991, spent three consecutive high school summers in the 70’s working on the waterfront. And his father and father-in-law were longshoreman.

Standing in the dispatch hall, Riley remembers being part of the younger group of casual longshoreman hired which didn’t mesh well at first with the old-timers.

“A lot of people knew my father,” he says. “So it was really easy for me. I was very fortunate in that way.”

The dispatch hall is where dock work is distributed to longshoremen for work on Northern California terminals.

“This is the hub of things,” says Worsham-Lige, a dispatcher and longshoreman.
Four dispatch windows correspond to different job categories. The longshoremen know what type of job is at what window and they also know that jobs are rotated by plug number (a identification number assigned to every longshoreman) and seniority (Class A’s, Class B’s, ID’s and Un-ID’s).

“It’s kind of like an equal distribution of work for all,” says Cresci.

Jobs are dispatched in the morning (6:00-6:30 a.m.) and evening (5:00-5:30 p.m.) daily. Work is available at various ports, including San Francisco, Oakland (where 96 percent of cargo containers arrive in Northern California) Redwood City, Richmond and as far away as Stockton and Sacramento (dispatched by a different local union).

The type of cargo can vary, from steel in San Francisco to food from military cruise ships in Concord, while all cargo in Oakland arrives in large containers

“Its like a huge UPS,” says Minor referring to the ports.

According to the ILWU website, the term longshoreman derived from shoreside criers calling “Men along the shore!” for last minute labor needed to load and unload cargo from clipper ships that usually arrived un-scheduled.

The first longshore unions were established in the West Coast during the 19th century and were “loosely affiliated” with the American Federation of Labor’s International Longshoreman’s Association (ILA).

The ILWU was formed in 1937 after voting to separate from the ILA after the famous Strike of 1934 that occurred up and down the West coast. July 5th is forever known as “Bloody Thursday,” when two workers were shot and killed during the strike.

The late Harry Bridges, a former San Francisco longshoreman is an important figure in union history. He was president of the ILA’s Pacific Coast district and later elected president of the ILWU.

Extensive training is needed in order to work heavy equipment like the top pick or the cranes. The length of training can vary depending on the machinery. Qualifying to train on a particular machine is done by seniority. A social security number is all that’s needed for the initial application process. The lucky few get interviews and a background check. But as Minor discovered, patience and determination is a major requirement.

That’s because a random lottery was used for casual hires (called un-ID”s and ID’s) which lead to a huge outpouring of eager candidates. Northern California had a signup in 1999 that attracted 7,500 applicants. But the process is slow, so slow that seven years later they are still going through the list of applicants.

Minor remembers his hiring process. He waited in a “big long line” for four hours and, after giving his social security number, “that was that,” he says. Eight months passed before Minor got the call.
“I had another job at that time but I told my job ‘peace’,” Minor recalls laughing. He started off, like many newcomers, as an un-ID (casual worker). He sometimes went months without working. The experience taught him a lot of patience, but the reward was worth it. Minor is now part ILWU Local 10, a union he showers with praise.

He has marched with his union in Washington D.C. to protest the war in Iraq and marched in the capital of South Carolina when five members of the Charleston 5 union faced jail time for allegedly starting a riot. Minor and his union were joined by other unions in the protest.
Six years ago, Local 10 members were locked out of work for 11 days during contract negotiations. Eventually a contract was negotiated.

Longshoremen make decent wages for their hard work but they work hard for their money. The average income of a longshoreman is around $107,000 per year according to a PMA representative. At the high end a longshoreman can make up to $160,000 per year.

Not all longshoremen are paid the same. Because Sabrina Giles is classified as an ID she doesn’t get benefits nor does she get paid the same amount as longshoreman with higher seniority. But she understands why.

“Those are dangerous machines to operate. They deserve to get paid,” says Giles.