Last week I read where a dockworker in Brooklyn was awarded $65M in a suit against his employer who he claimed had groped him on the job and when he complained he was banned from working on the Red Hook piers. Over the years I cannot ever remember such a situation. While I don't recall them groping they were not embarrassed to "reach" when a few bottles of scotch appeared or if a banana boat was working and they found a few stalks "aPEELing". If you saw "On the Waterfront" you know how cargo was handled or mishandled back in the 1950s. Many longshoremen wore those old WWI overcoats with extra pockets. One such fellow tied a pig of lead around his neck and tried to get past the gangway watchman as his face began to flush and he turned around and went back down the hatch to return his burden. You might say he was groped by a lead pig but he didn't gripe.
tjs
In the late 1970s, a friend of mine was the Captain of a Brazilian cargo ship, operating out of Pier 36, in Manhattan. They carried frozen lobsters in the reefer hold and stevedores where stolen them. He stoppe the work and demanded those in the gang to be sent ashore. The longshoremen went on strike and didn't come back until my friend apologized for the "inconvenience".
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