Dockworker Earnings, Containerisation, and Shipping Deregulation

This paper examines the earnings of US union dockworkers for periods prior to and after passage of the Shipping Act of 1984. Wage equation estimates indicate that the hourly (weekly) wages of union dockworkers increased by 14.3 per cent (15.3 per cent) in the postderegulation period, but the increase is not uniform across regions. Wages increased by 32.6 per cent (34.6 per cent) and 15.2 per cent (14.7 per cent) in the Northeast and West, respectively. Evidence suggests that the wage increases resulted from an increase in dockworker bargaining power, attributed to (1) the increase in demand for dockworkers; (2) the decrease in the likelihood that dockworker employers will chance a strike; and (3) the increase in port capital-labour ratios. © The London School of Economics and the University of Bath 2002