I’d be happy to. Prior to 1934, West Coast longshoremen (ie. dockworkers, those of us who load and unload ships) were hired through a daily routine known as the “shape-up” — “the most despised symbol of the longshoremen’s oppression.” 🧵
The shape-up was systemic throughout the maritime world, from SF to Boston, London and Durban, going back to at least the 1860s. It carried on elsewhere, but was finally eradicated here with the 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike, one of the most important strikes in US history.
The shape-up was a brutal and deeply exploitative hiring scheme. Men would gather along the docks in the morning, desperately hoping to get a shift that day. The company foreman would look over the men and hand pick them one by one, leaving most empty-handed.