Page 182 - Mellinato, Giulio, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2022. Complex Gateways. Labour and Urban History of Maritime Port Cities: The Northern Adriaticin a Comparative Perspective. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 182
plex Gateways
tion of the transformation through containers and computers today var-
ies vastly according to age and individual careers. In addition, fluctuation
in the port was always high. The transformation processes did not result
in mass layoffs as companies alleviated job cuts by offering their employ-
ees early retirement and reduced working hours.4 However, the number
of workers went down from 13,000 in 1978 to 6,000 in 1994.
In the Hamburg case, one can point out that this structural trans-
formation progressively led to better social, professional, and financial
circumstances for those who did not lose their jobs. However, unskilled
work never disappeared, but relocated. Since the early 1990s, container
packing has been a central topic of discussion, as many companies trans-
ferred outside the former free port area where they are not obliged to pay
the port tariff (Achten and Kamin-Seggewies 2008).
The fundamental role of work as a ‘social resource’ (Kocka 2010, 1) in
people’s everyday lives manifests in their narrations about it. New struc-
tures that went hand in hand with both the organization of work and
technical developments changed workers’ self-perceptions and how oth-
ers perceived them and transformed social interactions, established net-
works, and the socio-cultural fabric of dock work.
Climbing the social ladder – imaginaries and self-awareness
Authors of historical studies on the Hamburg port during the German
Empire and the Weimar Republic paint a picture of the dock worker as
he was to be found for over a century: the casual worker, whose most im-
portant skill was physical strength (Grüttner 1984; Weinhauer 1994). For
decades, dock work was mainly associated with noise, stench, and, above
all, back-breaking work. The figure of the simple worker, who tended to
have a negative image, appears in several interviews: ‘Whoever worked
there, they were all, they were young men of second-class. Those who
worked in the port were nothing. Those in the shipyards, yeah. But not in
the port, not in cargo handling, that was all, “ah, he’s got lice”, and with
the dirt and all that - no woman wanted to have anything to do with it.
Let me tell you that’ (Carsten Brandes, 1942). As a young man, Carsten
Brandes learned the traditional profession of bargeman, but soon quali-
fied to work with containers. His observation mirrors the fact that dock
4 A detailed social history of developments in port work after 1950 is yet to be writ-
ten. A look at the number of people who lost their job and the companies’ measures
suggests that this is only one version that needs to be further analysed.
182
tion of the transformation through containers and computers today var-
ies vastly according to age and individual careers. In addition, fluctuation
in the port was always high. The transformation processes did not result
in mass layoffs as companies alleviated job cuts by offering their employ-
ees early retirement and reduced working hours.4 However, the number
of workers went down from 13,000 in 1978 to 6,000 in 1994.
In the Hamburg case, one can point out that this structural trans-
formation progressively led to better social, professional, and financial
circumstances for those who did not lose their jobs. However, unskilled
work never disappeared, but relocated. Since the early 1990s, container
packing has been a central topic of discussion, as many companies trans-
ferred outside the former free port area where they are not obliged to pay
the port tariff (Achten and Kamin-Seggewies 2008).
The fundamental role of work as a ‘social resource’ (Kocka 2010, 1) in
people’s everyday lives manifests in their narrations about it. New struc-
tures that went hand in hand with both the organization of work and
technical developments changed workers’ self-perceptions and how oth-
ers perceived them and transformed social interactions, established net-
works, and the socio-cultural fabric of dock work.
Climbing the social ladder – imaginaries and self-awareness
Authors of historical studies on the Hamburg port during the German
Empire and the Weimar Republic paint a picture of the dock worker as
he was to be found for over a century: the casual worker, whose most im-
portant skill was physical strength (Grüttner 1984; Weinhauer 1994). For
decades, dock work was mainly associated with noise, stench, and, above
all, back-breaking work. The figure of the simple worker, who tended to
have a negative image, appears in several interviews: ‘Whoever worked
there, they were all, they were young men of second-class. Those who
worked in the port were nothing. Those in the shipyards, yeah. But not in
the port, not in cargo handling, that was all, “ah, he’s got lice”, and with
the dirt and all that - no woman wanted to have anything to do with it.
Let me tell you that’ (Carsten Brandes, 1942). As a young man, Carsten
Brandes learned the traditional profession of bargeman, but soon quali-
fied to work with containers. His observation mirrors the fact that dock
4 A detailed social history of developments in port work after 1950 is yet to be writ-
ten. A look at the number of people who lost their job and the companies’ measures
suggests that this is only one version that needs to be further analysed.
182
