The 1960 Mechanization and Modernization Agreement was a significant labor contract between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association. This agreement was groundbreaking for its time as it permitted the introduction of labor-saving technologies, particularly containerization, into the longshore industry along the West Coast of the United States, Canada, and Hawaii.

In return, the union received job security for registered longshoremen, enhanced benefits, and adjusted work rules to accommodate new machinery, which reduced the physical labor involved in cargo handling. At the time, the agreement was seen as a progressive approach to handling the impact of automation on labor, ensuring that workers were not simply displaced by technology but were instead protected and provided for through this transition.

But that doesn’t mean the adjustment wasn’t difficult for the longshoremen, as described in The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson:

More problematic for many longshoremen were the social changes stemming from the disappearance of the timeworn pattern of waterfront work. Traditional skills, such as knowing how to stow cargo aboard a breakbulk ship, lost value. Older men, whose seniority had enabled them to climb from the depths of the hold to less demanding work on the deck, found that smaller gang sizes made deckmen’s jobs too stressful. Fathers could no longer bring their sons into high-paying, albeit dangerous and demanding, waterfront jobs, because the jobs themselves were vanishing. Longshore families, now receiving stable incomes, were free to move from tough waterfront neighborhoods to comfortable suburbs, dealing a blow to the class solidarity that came from isolation. The days of long-established gangs working together, of casual conditions that let men work when they wanted to work and fish when they wanted to fish, would never be regained, as work once marked by independence and freedom from control became a high-paying but highly structured job. “They’re turning this job into a factory job,” complained New York longshoreman Peter Bell. Agreed Sidney Roger, editor of the ILWU newspaper in San Francisco, “I’ve heard so many men say, this is exactly what they said: ‘It’s no fun any longer working on the waterfront. The fun is gone.’ The fun has to do with the men working together, a sense of camaraderie.

A job is more than just a paycheck. It orders a worker’s life, provides social connection, and instills self-worth. I’m reminded of a 2019 piece in Salon, “Could a Universal Basic Income solve Appalachia’s post-coal poverty?,” in which found people in the region worried that simply providing money without work opportunities could exacerbate dependency problems. Folks need a sense of purpose that comes from productive employment, not just financial support.

These stories reinforce my baseline notion that policymakers should focus on promoting employment and creating conditions for job growth, rather than solely focusing on income redistribution or expansion of the social safety net. To achieve this, policymakers should invest in effective job training programs like apprenticeships and sector-focused initiatives, expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, and reform safety net programs to encourage work. Additionally, they should adapt healthcare access to support job mobility and review minimum wage laws that may unintentionally reduce workforce participation among low-wage workers. (All that and more here.)

The non-monetary benefits of work are crucial for individual and societal wellbeing. AI might make that task more challenging, but it is one worth undertaking.

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