BUILDING SKILLS: THE CASE OF BARCELONA'S DOCKERS IN THE 20th
CENTURY. LABOUR SPECIALIZATION AND RESIDENCE GUIDELINES ON
THE 30s.
Jordi Ibarz Gelabert
Universitat de Barcelona
Normally, the dockers are considered as a non differentiated group. Nevertheless, a
more precise analysis of this community will show us the existence of significant
differences between their members. These differences are related to: the particular tasks
carried out; the required skills in every case; the structuring in different syndicate
organizations; and the evolution of their labour relations.
The appearance of specialized and skilled workers in different tasks or merchandise was
difficult at small ports, as in ports with insufficient regularity and/or relevance in the
maritime traffic. But, just as it happened in Spanish ports and other ports of the world,
when the previous conditions were not satisfied a variety of specialties were created.
The aim of this communication is the consideration of the “underlying” relations
between the residence guidelines of the Barcelona dockers and their work specialties.
From the different trades and tasks of the port environment, the present research is
exclusively devoted to the workers of loading and unloading tasks at the waterfront1.
Determining elements in the appearance and development of port specialties.
Two dimensions related to skill were demonstrated in the port loading-unloading tasks,
like in many other areas and occupations. On one hand, there was a technological or
professional dimension that is the knowledge of the process of the work and the
personal tools, and the infrastructure mechanisms of the port loading-unloading tasks.
This presentation is a preliminary result of a large research study in progress. This
collective research is done at the group “Treballs, Institucions i Gènere”
(http://www.ub.es/tig) from the University of Barcelona. In this investigation the
reconstruction of families in different productive fields will be done with the aim of
analying female activity within the framework of the family strategy as a whole:
“Situation and contribution of women to economic life in industrial society’s formation.
A comparative approach” Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología. Ministerio de Trabajo y
Asuntos Sociales I+D+I Exp.54/05 2006-2008. This research is at the time part of the
project “Gender and Well-Being: Work, Family and Public Policies” COST A-34.
http://www.cost.esf.org/index.php?id=320
1
1
On the other hand, there was an institutional dimension, basically related to how skills
were the result of a historic social construction. The present study will be devoted to the
analysis of the second dimension mentioned above.
The social recognition of the different port specialties and the characteristics and
knowledge required by their members has a close relation to the irregularity in the
occupation that was one of the principal characteristic of the port tasks. This irregularity
was a direct consequence of the discontinuity of the maritime traffic: periods of
inactivity alternated with periods with a large demand of manpower with the arrival of
the ships. At the end of the XX century, the discontinuity in the manpower demand was
attenuated with different technological innovations, but the labour market was
characterized by discontinuity at the first third of the XX century. This stage was
characterized at the ports by their casual configuration (Heerma; Linden, 2000). A low
development in the technologies of load manipulation, a large offer of work and
relatively low salary levels were present at this stage. A large daily hired manpower was
required given the little mechanisation in that process.
A classification of the different dockers may be done in relation to the regularity of their
hiring. The regular workers were those with certain regularity over long periods of time,
in spite of the temporary nature of the hiring. This fact may be due to their professional
skill as well as to their submissiveness to the interests of the employer. There were other
people, hired occasionally, that were required only when the demand for manpower was
very high. There was not a defined frontier between both classes, in spite of their
extreme rivalry.
The regular workers needed to limit access of other workers at the port tasks, given that,
with no developed social protection systems, keeping their jobs was the principal means
to guarantee a minimum of income from an exclusive job at the port. Often, the tasks of
some specialties were combined with others tasks with partial dedication. For example,
in the case of some workers on the ship specialty, they occasionally could work as
fishermen.
On the other hand, the employer’s structure itself was very heterogeneous and
determined by a large atomization over many years (Ibarz, 2002). Hence, only a small
number of employers could guarantee a permanent job to a considerable number of
dockers. For this reason, the employers were also interested in the existence of
associations where the workers were framed according to their particular physical
2
aptitudes, skills, or tasks habits, and a place where they could go to hire specialized
manpower.
Such complementary interests of workers and employers guided the creation of the
various port specialties and the foundation of different organizations for the closed shop
to a limited number of very skilled workers in the different tasks and merchandise.
These entities adopted very different ways, and the official participation -from state or
local institutions- was also very different in the reservation of this workforce. It is
important to point out that the structure and organization of the waterfront labour
market in Barcelona was determined not only by the conflict of interests between
workers and employers, but also by the existence of complementary interests.
The different industrial disputes set since the end of the XIX century and the first third
of the XX century, which were articulated around this dual situation of confrontation
and collaboration, form the “social construction of the qualification of the port tasks”
(Ibarz, 2003). The background where that social construction was articulated was the
so-called technical and professional dimension. In this way, starting from the
characteristics of the work process in the principal port tasks, by decades, the different
specialties were configured.
In first place, there was the specialty or section of workers on the ships. These workers
were, in some sense, the heirs of the guild system in place since 1874. During the main
part of the XX century, and at least to 1975, with the development of the
containerisation, the workers on the ships were organized as the focal point of the port
workforce. Another important group was the coal workers. They were closely bound to
industrial development and primary needs such as coal was. Coal was used as a fuel in
gas and electricity production, and also was used in several industrial processes. Coal
was the second specialty in number of workers. The work in this area was less
specialized, and as a consequence, this was the entrance to the port and the city of lots
of immigrant workers. A third important group was the on shore workers, mainly
dedicated to classification and delivery tasks, the porters. These workers were
progressively diminishing in number due to the arising of small specialties in the
segregation of their contingent. Some of these specialties were, at the end of the XIX
century, the dockers used in wood unloading, and later in the 1920s, the cotton
dockworkers. Small associations of very skilled workers were originated from these
specialties, which were extremely important in the articulation of the port syndicalism.
As we can see, some of the oldest of these specialties were related to the particular place
3
where the tasks were done, that is on the ship and on the shore. Other specialties were
related to the manipulation of determined merchandise, such as coal, wood or cotton.
Traditionally, at the port of Barcelona the existence of a determined specialty where
associated to the creation and support of an organization was the workers were
integrated. There were two ways of organization, one as a mutual benefit society and
other as a trade union (Ibarz, 1993). The mutual benefit societies, normally under
employer’s control, had the finality of setting up economic assistance in the case of
illness, accident or death, besides the articulation of rules in the recognition of a docker.
Something similar was in the trade unions. They were workers entities, often with a
short life span due to government prohibitions or the employer’s confrontations. In
every case, based on the employer recognition of these workers societies, the right of
exclusive works in specific tasks in every specialty in the port was recognized.
Normally during the main part of the considered period, except in the case of very
special situation or labour confrontation, a particular entity corresponded to every
specialty, or as a mutual benefit society mixture of workers and employers, or else
formed exclusively by workers. This circumstance changed during the 30s, as we will
see below.
The specialities at the 30s
Given the characteristics of labour relations at the ports, there are no homogeneous
sources on the workforce before the Second World War. The situation was different in
northern European countries, such as the United Kingdom, where after 1945 the
National Dock Labour Scheme started (Jensen, 1964). In Mediterranean European
countries, this situation began to change before, for example in Italy by the 20’s (Genet,
1999). Then, we can distinguish two different models of ports in Europe that besides
their influence on the characterization of the labour relations, they have affected the
existence of available sources for the study of the dockers work in the ports. The
Mediterranean European countries, with fascist or totalitarian regimes since the 20s in
some cases, were the first in the regulation of the port work market, in charge of the
state administration. Often this regulation implied the establishment of an unique
register of workers, after a depuration of workers considered undesirables. In any case,
in Spain the first workers census in every port was established just in 1939. Some
previous attempts to carry out a port census were elaborated in the 30s, without success,
and were very discussed by some workers sectors and of limited application. For that
4
reason, in order to know the number of workers of every specialty in this decade it is
necessary to know the number of affiliated workers to every work organization or
employer mutual benefit society.
On the other hand, the strong syndicate struggles of those years shifted the split of some
of the most important insurance and workers entities, whereas some new ones appeared.
There was great competition between diverse workers’ collectives to get one place of
work. Then, the conflicts emerged between anarchists and socialists completely altered
the bases where the work market was articulated until this time. The employers did not
discuss the need of being associated to work at the port. The problem was which
organization could obtain the employer recognition.
For that reason, in order to know the number of workers belonging to every specialty, it
has been necessary to unveil the number of members of every workers organization.
Dockworkers and labor unions in the port of Barcelona, 1927-1936.
Specialities
Labour Unions
1927
Longshoreman Unión de Obreros del Montepio de San Pedro Pescador
1500
Longshoreman Sindicato de Obreros Estibadores y Desestibadores del
Puerto de Barcelona
Longshoreman Asociación de Antiguos Obreros del Puerto
Longshoreman Sindicato Autónomo de Obreros del Puerto de
Barcelona
Salt cod
Sociedad de Obreros de la Pesca Salada 'La Unión'
95
Porters
Sociedad de Faquines del Comercio
246
Cotton
Sociedad de Obreros Cargadores y Descargadores de
225
Algodón del Puerto
Wood
Sociedad de Obreros Cargadores, Descargadores y
250
Estibadores de Maderas del Puerto
Barrowers
Unión General de Conductores de Carretillas Eléctricas
del Puerto de Barcelona
Barrowers
Sindicato de Conductores de Carretillas Eléctricad del
Puerto de Barcelona
Coal
Sindicato de Obreros Cargadores y Descargadores de
550
Carbón Mineral del Puerto de Barcelona
Potash
Sindicato de Obreros Descargadores de vagones de
Potasa
Potash
Sindicato Autónomo Unión de Trabajadores de la
Potasa
Charcoal
La Solidaria' Sociedad de Trabajadores en Carbón
Vegetal
Charcoal
Sociedad 'La Protectora' de Obreros del Carbón Vegetal
en el puerto y en las Estaciones
Tallymen
Sociedad de Controladores de Cargas y Descargas y
Libramiento de Mercancías en el Puerto de Barcelona
Fresh Fish
Sindicato de Trabajadores del Pescado Fresco.
250
5
1930 1931 1933 1934 1935 1936
1319 1321 850?
735
600
589
-
463
409
400
361
284
277
184
145
135
95
95
434
480
511
240
214
210
244
192
187
290
-
-
-
-
383
60
225 200?
200
200?
103
110
600
-
-
-
-
750
76
48?
71
48?
769
585?
41
101
37
38
62
70
105
101
43
132
125
121
70
136
125
270
320? 137?
In the 30s, there were still 11 port specialties, but due to the existing labour struggles,
the real number of societies and worker trade unions was higher, arriving to a number of
17 entities (Ibarz, 2000).
Besides of the on the ship, coal and on the shore specialties, which integrated the most
workers, there were some others with few workers but dedicated to the manipulation of
goods with special difficulties or of high value. This is the case of cotton, wood, salt cod
and charcoal. The rest of specialties were related to other different tasks. This is the case
of the drivers of electric wheelbarrows, a new transport medium that appeared in 1927
at the port, or the case of the tallymen, dedicated to the control of documents of
boarding and to the number and identity of the pieces in every load. Finally, there was
other new specialty, the Potash, referred to the manipulation of this mineral, a new
traffic appeared at the Barcelona port at the 30s.
The reconstruction of the Workers Census
It is not sufficient to analyse the establishment of the number of workers in every
specialty. In the absence of suitable statistical sources, what we need is the identity of
every person in order to know their residence, and, later on in the research, to proceed to
reconstruct the dockers family. Our analysis will be based on nominal comparison, and
for that reason we have done the reconstruction of the census of the dockers of the
Barcelona port starting from the fragmented sources available.
These sources had principally a union origin, and consisted basically on lists, census,
and other workers relations from the different specialties existing in the sector. It is
from these lists of members of some organizations, or from newspapers sources
registering names of the people in news of the sector, that we constructed a database
with more than 10500 biographical items corresponding to approximately 5500
different workers.
We have used information coming from around twenty main historical sources in total.
Due to the high diversity of the used sources, the biographic information available on
every worker is also very diverse. The existence of more items than dockers implies that
some workers have more than one biographical information. It has been necessary to
convert biographic items to the outlines of the different worker biographies, through the
nominal comparison of the information available. The nominal comparison has been
done with the help of an administrator of a relational database of commercial character
6
that enables the search on duplicated fields. Nevertheless, on doubtful cases the final
decision was done in manual form.
Due to the high diversity in sources just mentioned, the number of workers used in this
work is not always proportional to the number existent in every specialty. This
circumstance is even more complicated in the case of coal. In spite of their importance,
we have little information on workers in this sector.
The nominal information obtained for the whole of the dockers has been crossed with
the existent information of the municipal census. This has been done to determinate the
workers residence, and in order to do the reconstruction of the principal characteristics
of the family structure. Then, we have proceed to search for these 5500 workers in the
“Libros Índice del Padrón Municipal de Barcelona” of 19302. The 1930 census is the
first that is completely conserved in Barcelona. This search has been done taking into
account the nominal comparison, one by one, of the different biographic items, given
that there were not computerised tools available to facilitate the task.
The longshoreman specialty is the best represented, referring to 1896 individuals, which
signifies practically all of the people involved in the specialty during these years. We
have localized the residences of almost the 70% of these people in 1930. Something
similar happens with the porters, although some of the sources had only the name and
the first surname of the workers. For this reason, we could localize around the 54% of
their residences. In the case of the coal, in spite of being made up of around a thousand
of workers, we could localize around the 58%. In other cases, the number of workers
localized in a defined specialty is very small, and then the associated data have no
statistical sense. In spite of this circumstance, we have situated all the specialties in
order to give directions, at least, on the principal features of the residence guidelines of
these workers.
In our investigation we have managed also biographic references from the dockers
widows at this period. Nevertheless, the analysis is not considered in that paper.
2
7
Residential segregation
The diagram shows the geographical distribution during the thirties and the relation to
the port with the different areas in which town was organised.
The port did grow from the original beaches close to the old town. The configuration of
the Barceloneta Quarter, the main sailor quarter in town, was built during the XVIII
century. This area was built in the exterior of the wall which surrounded the town till
mid XIX’s. Barceloneta was the nearest quarter to the old part of the port: “de la Riba”
quay, later known with some other denominations.
Since this initial placement, the port has been growing westbound. Since then the next
most recent part of the port was the Poniente, Costa and Contradique quays. Those were
built down on the Montjuic mountain and were dedicated since the first decade of the
XX to unload the coal, the most important in volume from those handled in the port.
8
Analysing the quarters where the majority of the dockers live, we find an urban ring,
next to the port. In fact, in this area lived 75% of them. The fact is that considering the
different tasks involved, we see that in practically all the cases, more than 50% of the
amount of people working in each of them did live in this waterfront ring.
Nevertheless, workers homes distribution was not uniform. Each one of these districts
had a geographical distribution depending on the occupation or the speciality of the
workers. Supposedly, this was related to the proximity of the houses according to the
place where the job was done.
Analysing the distribution of the workers’ houses we realise that there exists a
significant residential segregation. The longshoremen mainly lived in District 1. The
number of people who work on the waterfront were important in District 5, and the coal
handlers had a predominant presence in District 2.
Dockworkers residence guidelines in the port of Barcelona, 1930
Especiality
Longshoreman
Longshoreman (%)
Porters
Porters (%)
Cotton dockworkers
Cotton dockworkers (%)
Wood stevedores
Wood stevedores (%)
Salt cod dockworkers
Salt cod dockworkers (%)
Coal dockworkers
Coal dockworkers (%)
Charcoal dockworkers
Charcoal dockworkers (%)
Potash dockworkers
Potash dockworkers (%)
Electric wheelbarrow drivers
Electric wheelbarrow drivers (%)
Tallymen
Tallymen (%)
Fresh fish unloaders
Fresh fish unloaders (%)
Foreman
Foreman (%)
Tallymen (with 1939 info.)
Tallymen (with 1939 info.) (%)
Electric wheelbarrow drivers (1939) (%)
Electric wheelbarrow drivers (1939) (%)
"Sindicato de Obreros Estibadores…"
"Sindicato de Obreros Estibadores…" (%)
Number (Items) Census ref. Dto. 1 Dto. 2 Dto. 3 Dto. 4 Dto. 5 Dto 6. Dto 7. Dto. 8 Dto. 9 Dto. 10
1896 (3019)
1345
936
79
8
40
101
8
41
24
58
50
70,9
69,6
5,9
0,6
3,0
7,5
0,6
3,0
1,8
4,3
3,7
498 (559)
268
60
35
5
36
56
1
17
11
22
25
53,8
22,4
13,1
1,9
13,4
20,9
0,4
6,3
4,1
8,2
9,3
49 (72)
35
8
4
1
9
5
2
4
2
71,4
22,9
11,4
2,9
25,7
14,3
0,0
0,0
5,7
11,4
5,7
27 (44)
17
2
3
0
2
4
0
2
0
1
3
63,0
11,8
17,6
0,0
11,8
23,5
0,0
11,8
0,0
5,9
17,6
24 (28)
18
5
2
0
2
2
1
1
1
0
4
75,0
27,8
11,1
0,0
11,1
11,1
5,6
5,6
5,6
0,0
22,2
115 (134)
67
15
16
1
2
15
5
5
0
7
1
58,3
22,4
23,9
1,5
3,0
22,4
7,5
7,5
0,0
10,4
1,5
120 (126)
72
9
4
3
6
17
4
14
3
7
5
60,0
12,5
5,6
4,2
8,3
23,6
5,6
19,4
4,2
9,7
6,9
19 (19)
9
1
1
0
1
3
0
1
0
2
0
47,4
11,1
11,1
0,0
11,1
33,3
0,0
11,1
0,0
22,2
0,0
34 (38)
15
4
5
0
1
3
0
1
1
0
0
44,1
26,7
33,3
0,0
6,7
20,0
0,0
6,7
6,7
0,0
0,0
19 (22)
18
4
8
1
2
0
0
1
0
1
1
94,7
22,2
44,4
5,6
11,1
0,0
0,0
5,6
0,0
5,6
5,6
69 (97)
36
13
4
0
6
4
1
1
2
1
4
52,2
36,1
11,1
0,0
16,7
11,1
2,8
2,8
5,6
2,8
11,1
15 (25)
12
80,0
5
41,7
1
8,3
0
0,0
1
8,3
1
8,3
1
8,3
1
8,3
1
8,3
0
0,0
1
8,3
83 (97)
61
73,5
69
51,1
20
32,8
26
37,7
15
24,6
16
23,2
3
4,9
2
2,9
4
6,6
6
8,7
6
9,8
9
13,0
1
1,6
0
0,0
2
3,3
4
5,8
1
1,6
3
4,3
5
8,2
1
1,4
4
6,6
2
2,9
124
57,1
29
23,4
15
12,1
3
2,4
7
5,6
28
22,6
4
3,2
13
10,5
2
1,6
11
8,9
12
9,7
135 (144)
217 (217)
The most significant information in Table 2 is the importance of District 1 as a place
where the longshoremen live. As much as 70% live there. Living and working in the
same area is a fact in such a case. Residential segregation is in this case the most
marked.
Insofar as we take into account some other skills we confirm that there is not such a
clear relation. In spite of being a quite important number in District 1 (a quarter of the
9
population), porters have a more uniform distribution. In fact, there is an important
amount of them living on the adjacent district (the fifth), as well as in the second and
even less in the forth one, not so near to the port but quite close to it. Regarding to the
coal handlers there is a uniform distribution between the three districts of the waterfront
ring although when considering the total of workers there have the majority residents in
the second district.
The population distribution of the three groups has to do with: the geographical
specialisation of the docks according to the tasks done in there, the goods and the places
where the hiring of people was done. Workers used to go two or three times a day to
that point in order to get a job, hence the importance of the proximity between these
places and home.
The importance of the number of coal handlers in the second district depends on the
necessary proximity to the places they did their job. Despite of that, we have no
explanation for different residential behaviour of the longshoremen and of the porters.
Although both of them did work in the same places (on the ship and on the shore
respectively) their residential distribution is quite different. It is different due to
longshoremen residences. They are totally gathered in District 1. This can be explained
by means of different reasons. We do consider that the longshoremen form a closed
10
community. Such an organisation makes it difficult for others to get a job there. It is a
matter of fact that such a close coexistence was a condition for the protection of this
professional group.
We have one example to show this. During the first years of the Spanish Second
Republic it was a very strong struggle between the socialist of the UGT and the
anarchists of the CNT. Longshoremen -who were former members of the Montepio de
San Pedro Pescador which at the beginning was employer’s control, and members of the
anarchist union since 1931- were in conflict with wood and cotton stevedores. They
didn’t want to work together with socialist workers. Socialist trade unions decided to
create a new union, the Sindicato de Estibadores y Desestibadores de Buques del Puerto
de Barcelona, in October 1931, with the people working with their affiliates from the
wood and cotton branch.
The fact is that when we compare the residential behaviour of the people from the new
trade union with the one from the rest of longshoremen we find very important
differences. There still remains an important number or workers living in District 1 but
their distribution was quite similar to those of the porters. We also see that the new
union was filled with new workers living in areas which were far from the port. The
incorporation to this new union had probably more to do with ideological affinity than
with behaving to a working tradition.
Besides those three specialities we do have information on some other ones. District 4
appears when considering the cotton stevedores. Cotton was unloaded in Dock España
close to the district. Proximity criterion acts in this case.
A bit different is the case of the charcoal and the wood dockworkers. In such cases
residence is not related with the zone of the docks where the materials are handled. The
place to discharge charcoal was further than the inhabited areas in town. People working
with charcoal and wood were hired to work in the stores and railroad stations in town,
so the residential distribution was more uniform.
With regard to the electric wheelbarrow drivers and tallymen, the result of our study is a
bit different. We made two different analyses. In the first instance, we haven’t included
references to workers of this specialty from a list dated January 1939 that relates to
inspection of works of those employed in the anarcho-syndicalist labour collectivity set
up at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. This information is subsequent to the
creation of the municipal census of 1930 and can deviate somewhat due to the nature of
the collectivization that marginised specific workforces. Despite this, and although in
11
the second calculation the residents of these specialties in District 1 are more important,
what stands out most in both cases is the polarization between District 1 and 2.
However, the explanation for this is different in each case. The two electrical
wheelbarrow companies had their depots in different neighbourhoods, which could go
towards explaining the population distribution of the barrowmen. Amongst the tallymen
we can see how District 2 gains importance as a result of being the main residence for
tallymen in a neighbourhood of this District. This neighbourhood, in the same District
as that of the coal dockworkers, is different. We are referring to the neighbourhood of
San Antonio situated in Barcelona’s Ensanche it can be considered a middle-class
neighbourhood quite different to the working class neighbourhoods where the majority
of the port’s workforce lived.
The analysis carried out for this study has mainly used the Districts’ municipal
administration, however, distribution in Districts can be more accurate still if in its place
we consider the streets and the neighbourhoods where these workers lived just as we
have done with the tallymen. So, for example, we have disintegrated the results we had
for the porters and we have proved that of the 60 District 1 residents 36 were from
Barceloneta and the remaining 24 were from Ciutat Vella. These residents together with
those of District 5 demonstrate a rather different situation with 30% of residents of the
port’s central crown compared to merely 13,5% of the residents in Barceloneta.
We have also carried out this neighbourhood analysis with the workers from a labour
union, Union Obrera del Montepio de San Pedro Pescador, that specialized in
longshoremen. This organization has a list created in 1935 that also includes the
workers’ addresses. This not only allows us to consider with more detail where they
lived but also how mobile these workers were in terms of residence during the 1930’s.
This organization had 599 members of which we have the address for 494 in 1930 band
on which this analysis has been carried out.
Longshoremen and Barceloneta, 1930-1935
Zone A (< 0´6 Km.)
Zone A + B (< 2 Km.)
Zone C (> 2 Km.)
Workers in 1930
364
433
61
12
%
Workers in 1935
73,7
367
87,7
418
12,3
76
%
74,3
84,6
15,4
Hence, according to the street and street number where they lived we can surmise that
three quarters of them lived in a radius of 500 metres with the epicentre in Barceloneta.
Despite the changes in address that occurred between 1930 and 1935, when 52,6% of
workers in this Union changed address, the addresses remained within the 500m radius.
In 1930, 73,7% can be found within this proximity to the port and in 1935 the
percentage rises to 74,3%. Only a maximum of 15% of said workers lived in a radius of
more than 2 Km from their place of work as longshoremen. With all these results we
can see how important it was to live near to the workplace and how within each District
the workers tended to live in those streets and neighbourhoods closest to the port.
Moreover however, we can also see in specific neighbourhoods and in a specific
number of streets the concentration of the majority of workers in this specialty.
Conclusions
One of the first results to come from the research was that the port was a world of
diversity. The existence of different labour specialties gives us an indication of the
complexity of this world. The existence of these specialties explains how strategies
adapted by management and accepted by workers allowed an increase in productivity
despite a lack of infrastructure.
13
On the other hand we have seen how workers’ residence guidelines were related to their
specialty. The criteria of proximity to specific places in the port where the work was
carried out together with where the hiring of employees occurred was the most
important factor in establishing where the worker lived. However, despite these factors
of proximity there were also other factors in specific cases. The most noticeable was
that of the longshoremen the concentration of which was only justifiable in terms of a
community used as a main element in maintaining a closed shop in this particular
specialty.
The analysis of residential segregation in comparison to labour requirements within the
port is only the first step in understanding skill. As well as the institutional dimension
the study should also consider the technological dimension on which it is built as well
as the transmittal of labour occupations. The transmittal or passing on of the labour
specialty should be analyzed not so much as a personal choice but as a family strategy
in a broader sense with the reconstruction of the workers’ lineage. In this manner we
can introduce a gender perspective to a sector like that of the port, where the workforce
was overwhelmingly male dominated.
14
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