Bergen, Månen

I løpet av noen få ti-år rundt 1950-1970 tok containertransport over for nesten all godstrafikk. I tillegg til å gjøre transport av varer betydelig rimeligere, og med det legge til rette både for en eskalert global varestrøm og just-in-time produksjon, medførte containeren en fullstendig forandring av havnen, de nærliggende områdene og ikke minst tilværelsen til alle som var involvert i arbeidet med godstrafikk:

“More problematic for many longshormen were the social changes stemming from the disappearance of the timeworn pattern of waterfront work. Traditional skills, such as knowing how to stow cargo aboard a breakbulk ship, lost value. Older men, whose seniority had enabled them to climb from the depths of the hold to less demanding work on the deck, found that smaller gang sizes made the deckmen’s jobs too stressful. Fathers could no longer bring their sons into high-paying, albeit dangerous and demanding, waterfront jobs, because the jobs themselves were vanishing. Longshore families, now recieving stable incomes, were free to move from tough waterfront neighbourhoods to comfortable suburbs, dealing a blow to the class solidarity that came from isolation. the days of long-established gangs working together, of casual conditions that let men work when they wanted to work and fish when they wanted to fish, would never be regained, as work once marked by independence and freedom from control became a high paying but highly structured job, s. 126, Marc Levinson: The Box