Still on the Waterfront

The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor, a bistate agency, was established in 1953 in response to pervasive corruption and organized crime penetration of the International Longshoremen’s Association. The recent extortion charges announced by the commission and Attorney General Dow against the secretary-treasurer of an ILA local and his associates could have been filed in those days as well. A lot of things have changed on the docks in 50 years, but the core problem remains the same.

Longshoring is casual work. Longshoremen are hired and let go one loading or unloading job at a time. There are often more men than jobs, and the power to hire and assign work is the power to extort. Before the reforms of the 1950s, longshoremen were hired in a shape up at the docks. Union leaders and hiring bosses played favorites, and workers had to kick back part of their wages. Since the establishment of the Waterfront Commission, longshoremen are hired through a union-run hiring hall, which is supposed to give out work on the basis of seniority, but which can also be abused through corruption and favoritism. The current charges set out the historic pattern of extorting payment for favorable work assignments and paying the tribute upstream to organized crime.