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Alec Stapp
@AlecStapp
The Longshoremen's union has opposed productivity improvements throughout its entire history. In the 1950s, they even opposed containerization — demanding that every container be emptied & reloaded by hand. Which would have completely eliminated any efficiency gains...
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Alec Stapp
@AlecStapp
Another reason they opposed containerization — it made it much harder to steal the cargo. Liquor exporters were especially excited to switch to containers... (excerpts are from The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger)
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David Watson 🥑
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Will Hubbard
@wbhub
My grandfather was Sea-Land’s first employee and opened most ports in the Western Hemisphere for containerization. When he was in a meeting negotiating with the New Jersey longshoremen, they riddled his car with bullets. Organized crime and organized labor have deep roots.
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