Dock Worker
F3. Seafaring Life, Education, Professions and InstitutionsDefinition
Cargo handler, organized in unions such as the ILA and ILWU.
A waterfront laborer who loads, discharges, lashes, and moves cargo between ship and shore, the trade covered by ILO Convention No. 137 (1973) on dock work and the 1979 occupational-safety Convention No. 152. In the United States dock workers are organized by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) on the East and Gulf coasts and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) on the West Coast. The work spans container lashing, hatch operations, breakbulk slinging, and ro-ro driving, increasingly mechanized at modern terminals.
Source: ILO Dock Work Convention No. 137 (1973); ILO Occupational Safety (Dock Work) Convention No. 152 (1979).