ILWU Listbot Disclaimer Unloading the APL China Larry Hansen, Del Bates, and Jeff Vigna watched in disbelief as the huge ship APL China was towed into port at Seattle s Terminal 5. This was going to be difficult.
Longshoremen are dock workers who load and unload ships.
Several hundred longshoremen worked in Seattle at the busy container terminals along the waterfront. They operated the huge cranes that lifted cargo containers on and off ships, moving the containers between trucks, trains, and ships. Del was a member of the union s Labor Relations Committee, and Jeff was a member of the union s Crane Safety Committee. The three of them were watching the China dock because unloading it was going to be a real challenge. The China had been caught in a severe ocean storm on its journey across the Pacific from Asia.