The technology dispute behind the lockout on docks in the US that has paralyzed trade with Asia and is threatening a devastating economic blow to the American economy harks back to the first days of the Industrial Revolution itself.
Back then, displaced weavers felt they would lose their jobs to new-fangled looms. Now, leaders of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, representing 10,500 dock workers, fear that new computerized tracking technology threatens the livelihood of their members, who are among the best paid in the US, with average annual salaries of more than US$100,000.
Most of these workers are no longer the brawny dockers personified in the classic Marlon Brando movie "On the Waterfront." The manual unloading of ships has long been replaced by high-tech cranes that grab containers from massive ships. These containers are then moved quickly to nearby distribution centres where they are sent for "just in time" shipping to keep companies' inventory and costs to a minimum.
In this rush for efficiency, shippers and port authorities view the clipboard-toting clerical workers that track these loads as a glaring anomaly.
Although they are less than an hour's drive from the centre of Silicon Valley, workers at the huge port of Oakland, California, often mark containers with chalk and shout traffic directions over the roar of truck engines.
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