Containerization may have cut the number of longshoremen on the waterfront, but union dockworkers issued a stinging reminder of their importance to the shipping trade with a wildcat strike Tuesday that shut down the Port of New York and New Jersey.
Towering shipping cranes loomed motionless above idled container ships at the Port Newark/Elizabeth Marine Terminal complex, as members of the International Longshoremen’s Association union mulled outside the entrances to several terminals along Newark Bay. They were honoring picket lines set up by ILA brethren losing their jobs at a bulk cargo terminal in Camden to a non-ILA facility in Gloucester. The Global Terminal in Bayonne and the Howland Hook container port on Staten Island were also shut down.
To some union workers, the show of strength was a victory in itself.
“Without solidarity, we got nothing,” said Kevin O’Hara, 31, of Philadelphia, a married father of three who was one of more than 200 Camden longshoremen who lost their jobs and was in Newark picketing Tuesday.
Labor and industry officials said it was difficult to calculate the cost of the strike, though it was bound to be significant in terms of lost revenues and wages.
Even if no incoming shipments were diverted to competing ports because of the strike, officials said the cost of Tuesday’s action is likely to be high, for shippers and related businesses, as well as union workers who honored picket lines.