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The article describes the use of the computer in the New York longshore industry and discusses benefits and problems so far encountered in its application. A computer is now a central feature in the hiring of dockworkers on the waterfront in the Port of New York. What is past is obviously prologue, for computerization would not have been feasible without the various innovations and changes in hiring practices, which followed one another during the past decade or two. Another improvement in hiring has taken place and the current development may be significant, indeed. This development came as a result of the collective agreement signed early in 1965 between the International Longshoremen's Association and the New York Shipping Association. The problems of manpower utilization and job security were before the parties as they entered into negotiations in mid-1964, as they had been in earlier negotiations. The computer was introduced primarily to facilitate the keeping of the hiring and employment records needed in the administration of the guarantee, but the programming had to be structured around the seniority-priority system of hiring previously established.

For a number of years before the enactment in 1953 of the New Jersey-New York Waterfront Commission Compact (Bi-State Compact), an inordinate number of men were attached to the longshore labor market of the Port of Greater New York. In 1952 this condition was pointed to by the New York State Crime Commission as a breeding ground for, as well as an effect of, unsavory hiring practices and crime on the waterfront. The Commission's various findings and recommendations led the legislatures of New Jersey and New York to enact the Bi-State Compact, which provided for the creation of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor. This Commission was given, along with other duties, a threefold assignment with respect to the longshore labor market. It was to register all longshoremen and exclude undesirable men from covered waterfront employment; to regularize and systematize employment through employment information centers; and to reduce the number of men available for longshore work to such a number as would adequately supply the needs of the port and ensure that employment of bona fide longshoremen would not be impaired by the hiring of men who had no legitimate or regular attachment to the industry. In conformance with these requirements the Waterfront Commission set up (1) a system for screening and registration of longshoremen, (2) a number of employment information centers at convenient locations in the port through which hiring was to be consummated, (3) regulations for the supervision and control of hiring, and (4) a decasualization program. It is our primary purpose to examine the experience and problems related to the last of these activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to the widespread attention given to disputes and work stoppages in the shipping industry in the Port of New York, scant publicity has been given to the recent efforts of employers and the International Longshoremen's Association to resolve grievances on the piers through peaceful means. This article discusses the grievance machinery established by the New York Shipping Association and the ILA in 1955 and its accomplishments in settling disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]