Allan Sekula

1955 Chicago Longshoremen Gather for Work Wire [title as indicated on PayPal document], black-and-white photograph, 20.5 x 25.3 cm. Purchased by Allan Sekula through eBay on 25 July 2011.

[on the backside of the photograph, handwritten and pasted newspaper clipping]

SEP 13 1955

The day is coming in the not too distant future when Chicago will be the No. 1 inland port in America. Its shipping activity will rank with that of the great ocean ports of the world. All this, of course, when the St. Lawrence Seaway is completed, when the Calumet-Sag navigation channel is widened and deepened and when Lake Calumet port facilities are developed.

Then, the longshoremen - already an important force in the city's life - will become far more important still.

Here is how the longshoremen operate "on the waterfront" in Chicago. They are members of AFL International Brotherhood of Longshoremen, not to be confused with the independent International Longshoremen's Association for whom a strike was called Tuesday at Eastern and Gulf Coast seaports.

ABOVE - Longshoremen gather as early as 6:50 a.m. daily for the "shape up," in which 11-man pier gangs are selected to handle cargo at the North Pier terminal, under the Lake Shore dr. bridge.

Roy E. Fors (left on platform), a foreman for the North Pier Terminal Co., picks a men for the crew, as other officials of the company and a union steward (right) watch and check off the names