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Social Context: What Was Being Walled In or Walled
Out?
Union Context
Longshoremen were one of the first labor groups to organize in San Francisco.
The Riggers and Stevedores Union was established in 1853,
and continued in existence until 1919. Although its strength and fortunes
varied over time, the union was a force throughout that period for wage
standards, and to some extent working conditions. However, if you were
never picked for work, the hourly wage was irrelevant. So, the overriding
system of casual labor meant the hiring process was actually a more critical
question than wage levels.
That process was both archaic and perfect for exploitation. Traditionally,
longshoremen would gather, or shape up, on the pier when a ship arrived.
There a hiring boss could choose the men he wanted. Those who were not
chosen could move on to other piers, or could remain in the vicinity on
the chance of more men being needed. Although the Riggers and Stevedores
Union at times was able to enforce a closed shopthat is with only
union members eligible to workit had no ability to govern the choices
made by hiring bosses among union members. So, bribery and favoritism
governed.
This traditional hiring system assumed independent knowledge on the part
of workers of which piers had ships at them and in what stage the work
was at that location. With open piers, this information was available
to anyone who looked. But with the advent of bulkhead buildings, the bosses
acquired more control over this basic information. Further, the system
depended on free access for prospective workers to the piers in order
to shop for work. This too was now reduced, and with it the opportunities
for free communication between workers.
In the traditional hiring system, there was a direct spatial relationship
between workers, the work, and the city at large. The bulkhead buildings
altered that relationship. The first of these, at Pier 35, was constructed
in 1916. In that same year, the longshoremens union had been forced
to settle a strike without attaining its goals. In response to the strikethe
first ever to include all west coast portsso a signal of growing
union solidarity maritime employers launched a campaign for the
"open shop" that is the right to employ non-union workers. Physically
the monumental new structure at Pier 35 closed off the "shop"
or workplace, but in doing so it became symbolicallylater literallya
bastion of the employers open shop plan.
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| Bulkhead Buildings and
Bluebooks » |
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Cinematic and graphic portrayals of
the shapeup. |
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The workplace walled off; Pier 35 with
bulkhead building |
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