Thousands of dockworkers went on strike demanding higher pay and assurances that new port technology would not put them out of a job.
The year was 1977 — but the same themes ring true in the first dockworkers’ strike to hit since then, as more than 47,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association walked off the job Tuesday at 36 ports along the East and Gulf coasts, including the Port of New York and New Jersey, affecting key facilities in Newark and Elizabeth.
Among the ILA’s demands this time are higher pay, better health benefits and job protection in the face of automation. Leaders at the ILA cut off contract talks in June after learning that a form of automation had been introduced at the Port of Mobile in Alabama, an action they said violated the existing contract…