James “Spinner” Spinosa followed his uncles to the Los Angeles waterfront in 1969. He has held various leadership positions within the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, including the position of international president.
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James “Spinner” Spinosa followed his uncles to the Los Angeles waterfront in 1969. He has held various leadership positions within the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, including the position of international president.
Philip Cheung for NPR
The first time James “Spinner” Spinosa saw an unmanned machine lift a giant container and move it through a shipyard was during a trip to Rotterdam in 1989.
He was surprised, and in equal measures, wary.
As a rising star in the West Coast dock workers union, his mind immediately turned to the union brothers and sisters back home – truckers and crane operators – people whose jobs would be in jeopardy.
But that’s not all. That same day, Spinosa peeked through an open door into a room that was not part of the tour.
“Lo and behold, here are about six or eight people on the computer, communicating with what they’re showing us in the yard,” he said. “I knew then, these were big changes. We had to get this done.”
“Tax-free machines”
Fast forward 33 years. Automation poses a greater threat to union jobs today than ever before. Three terminals at the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach are now partially or fully automated, and several others are contemplating that. It became a prominent issue in contract negotiations between shipbuilders and the shipping industry that began in May.
Now retired, Spinosa has a vision of the future, believing that unions must look to tomorrow’s work to avoid falling behind.
But in the harbor, existing union dockers fear giving up any more ground.
In the port of Los Angeles, the cranes are ready for the arrival of a container ship. About 40% of containerized goods imported into the United States arrive through the ports of LA and Long Beach.
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In the port of Los Angeles, the cranes are ready for the arrival of a container ship. About 40% of containerized goods imported into the United States arrive through the ports of LA and Long Beach.
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“These machines don’t pay taxes. They don’t help our local economy. They don’t help the infrastructure,” said Yvette Bjazevic, who has worked on the harbor for 20 years. , said. “We should all be offended.”
But Spinosa’s future is shaped by his experience leading the International Long-distance and Logistics Alliance through turbulent times.
Instead of stopping technological advances, Spinosa doubled down on the fight for union jobs. Regardless of the technology used on the dock, he wanted to make sure union workers were there, ready to take on new roles.
It is an approach similar to the one that ILWU has adopted almost since its inception.
Hook used to carry the fruit into the bin. Now cranes transport large shipping containers
Now retired, Spinosa remains involved with ILWU, speaking at union caucuses about the issues facing dock workers today.
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Now retired, Spinosa remains involved with ILWU, speaking at union caucuses about the issues facing dock workers today.
Philip Cheung for NPR
Spinosa followed his uncles to the waterfront in 1969, when ocean-crossing ships were much smaller — like rowboats, he joked — and most of the cargo was still handled by hand. Seafarers used different types of hooks for different types of goods, be it fruit crates, cotton bales or corrugated sacks.
Spinosa recalls: “The old guys we worked with, they’ll take you on their wing, and they’ll show you how to actually load and unload, properly stow, and stay safe.
But that all changed with the advent of shipping containers, colorful steel boxes that have now become the norm of the global shipping industry.
A controversial deal
No longer were the necessary groups of coasters in the ship’s moorings. One crane operator can lift an entire container full of goods at once.
“Instead of having 75 or 90 men working on a ship, you could have fewer, 10 or more, do the same amount of work or more work,” historian Robert Cherny, author author of ILWU’s upcoming long-time biography. President Harry Bridges.
The union foresaw the threat to jobs then. In the 1960s, Bridges negotiated a controversial deal. Unions will accept the use of containers and cranes and other forms of mechanization, as long as there is something in there for the workers. Above all, a guaranteed salary – regardless of whether there is a job or not.
“From the late 1930s to the early 1940s, unions always said that they were willing that employers would introduce labor-saving machines, but unions had to be consulted, and on the basis of The union has to get a part of it,” Cherny said.
Spinosa sums it up this way: Union shipbuilders will go hand in hand with mechanization, as long as mechanization takes them along.
Shipping containers are piled high at the Port of Los Angeles.
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Shipping containers are piled high at the Port of Los Angeles.
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“Any work is needed for the future, hopefully we are there and we are doing it”
Spinosa has stuck to that basic tenet throughout his career. In the 1980s, he accepted that computers were bringing efficiency to the work of mariners, who had spent decades mapping the movements of containers by hand. But he fought to ensure that a union worker would be in front of those computers.
“As long as the device needs to be moved across terminals, that will be done by ILWU,” he said. “The problem arises when it becomes a robot.”
Spinosa worries that the union doesn’t know enough about the technology being brought to ports today to fight for the jobs that may open tomorrow. Employers in the shipping industry aren’t exactly opening and announcing new positions, he said. It’s on the union to figure it out.
“We have to have an offensive stance. We have to go find those jobs,” he said. “We have to understand this industry like never before.”
He called on the union to bring in experts in automation to find out who is sitting on all the computers and what exactly they are doing.
“That’s how we’re going to try to protect the industry, so whatever work is needed for the future, hopefully we’re there and we’re doing it,” he said.
