In 1948, when the building first opened its doors and the workforce was significantly smaller, jobs were written on a chalkboard. Courtesy of ILWU Local 13.
For more than a half century, hundreds of dockworkers have pushed into a tiny dispatch hall in Wilmington to find out which terminal in the busy ports complex they’ll work in for the next few days.
In July, this slice of history will vanish as the yellow-stuccoed dispatch hall that bears huge murals depicting the history of the dockworkers union closes to the longshoremen forever.
This is when the union workers who’ve received dispatch orders for jobs will move a few blocks away. They’re headed to a $26 million building on 9 acres owned by the Port of Los Angeles at Alameda and Anaheim streets.
