The Red Hook WaterStories team has not yet written  much about Red Hook longshoremen, their labor issues and working life.   (This project currently receives no direct funds).  We hope to remedy that some day but until then here are some related entries in Red Hook WaterStories and some links to references.

Red Hook WaterStories entries:

Winter storm batters, buries and freezes ships and shore, February 1895
Longshoremen idled by winter storm.

Pete Panto (1910 - 1939)
Pietro "Pete" Panto was an Italian American longshoreman and union activist who was murdered by the mob for speaking out and organizing against corrupt union leadership. 

Italian Laborers at Pier 30, 1918
Photo

Shaft Alley Saloon
From the 1930s to the 1950s this  Red Hook Saloon was written about as  a popular place for “merchant seamen, longshoremen, shipyard workers, and bums.”

Oral History: Sunny Balzano: Beloved barkeep and community figure. 2016
Sunny Balzano was the beloved owner of a legendary longshoremen’s bar, some 90 years old, which became known as Sunny’s. 

Musak on the Pier, 1934
In 1934 the workers on Isbrandtsen-Moller ‘s Pier 30 near the Hamilton Avenue ferry house were part of an experiment:  Musak versions of swing, Schubert and Strauss.

Japanese Trade and the Erie Basin: Osaka Chosen Kaisha Line (1930-1940) br>In the 1930s, most of the passenger and cargo trade with Japan coming into the port of New York was handled by Brooklyn piers; and one of the biggest players was the Osaka Chosen Kaisha Line that departed from Pier 3 in the Erie Basin.  Workers feared what would happen to their jobs if trade with Japan was cut off.  (Note: this was before Pear Harbor).

Twenty Years of Moving Cargo: Local 1814 20th Anniversary Publication 1954 - 1974
Local 1814, International Longshoremen's Association, AFL-CIO commemorated their 20^th anniversary in 1974 with a publication celebrating their accomplishments and with a positive outlook for the future.

Nancy Kearse Gooding, a Red Hook Leader, 1970s
Red Hook in the 1970s was going through tough times. Longshoremen strikes idled many, and industries that depended on shipping then laid off workers. There was a lot of resentment in the neighborhood. 

@Work. An pandemic-era art project presenting essential workers thoughts about their work. 2022
A 2022 public art project by Zoe Beloff and Eric Muzzy of portraits.

Some sources pertaining to Red Hook Longshoremen:

• The Longshoremen: a Study Carried On Under the Direction of Pauline Goldmark. A report  by Charles B. Barnes  published by the New York: Survey Associates, 1915. Full volume at archive.org

  

Possibly the first academic look at New York’s longshoremen, the book  explores the working conditions and wages of longshoremen, at times in a picturesque way.  Barnes study is notable for both its depiction of longshoremen and the difficulties in researching them:  

" All longshoremen have gnarled hands; it is impossible for them to escape this distinguishing sign. And herein lies a grievance: that a mechanic can wash, dress up, and so disguise his occupation, while a cargo handler must always be known for what he is. Because of the undefined slight attached to the name, longshoremen are exceedingly sensitive about their trade. Often a man is so careful to keep his occupation hidden that his neighbors in the same house do not know how he earns a living. During the taking of the last census, many wives of longshoremen reported their husbands as laborers or shipping clerks; they were ashamed of the occupation. "Certainly," say the men, "we're ashamed to be called longshoremen. If one of us is arrested and owns up his occupation to the judge, that is good for thirty days, whether he's done anything or not." "

• Report On Dock Employment In New York City And Recommendations for its Regularization. Mayor's Committee on Unemployment, New York City, October, 1916. New York: Press of Clarence S. Nathan, 1916  Full volume available at hathitrust.org

• The Waterfront Labor Problem: A Study In Decasualization And Unemployment Insurance. New York: Fordham university press. By Ernest Swanstrom,1938. Full volume available at hathitrust.org

"A rather distressful picture of the unwholesome and pitiful effect the irregularity of the wage earner's employment has upon the family's existence. The writer, in addition to acting as an assistant, between 1928 and 1932, at one of the churches in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, has been engaged since that time in the work of the Catholic Charities organization of the diocese. Both experiences have brought him into intimate contact with many a longshoreman and his family during that time, and he has had an opportunity to observe closely the social consequences of the longshoreman's haphazard method of existence."

• Shape-up and Hiring Hall; a Comparison of Hiring Methods and Labor Relations on the New York and Seattle Water Fronts, by Charles P. Larrowe, 1955.  Full volume at archive.org
  

  "Under the traditional hiring system, longshoremen seeking jobs "shaped up" each morning at the docks where they usually worked. They waited in the street until a hiring foreman came out of the door of the pier warehouse and blew his whistle, then formed a sort of horseshoe around him. From this group — which typically outnumbered the available jobs — he picked the men for the day's work. Men who were picked in the "shape- up" were guaranteed only four hours work."  p.3

  
• Chaplain on the Waterfront: the Story of Father Saunders. By John Van MacNair, New York: Seabury Press, 1963. Full volume at hathitrust.org
  

  " Thirty years ago the longshoreman was poorly paid, had no regular means of employment, had no assurance he would work as much as a half - day even when hired, had no vacation, pension, or seniority system, no medical care beyond what he could eke out for himself. Father Saunders' friend Blackie Vinciata provides a good example of some of the changes.

   " Hiring was like a cattle auction, " says Blackie. " The setup stunk to high heaven.  You'd do anything to get a job. On one pier” — Blackie laughs at this " guys would kick back some of the pay to get haircuts at a certain barbershop. But if you turned up to get the haircut, what a laugh ! If you didn't move fast enough to suit some hatch boss - wham ! — he'd slug you in the neck with a wooden roller. They talked to you like you were scum. You'd work for twenty years and not have a lousy penny to show for it. And no seniority or pension, either." p. 99 - 100

This is by no means a comprehensive list - it barely touches on unions - just some of the early works about Brooklyn's longshoremen available on the internet.