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Took a roadtrip up north and passed through Oakland/San Fran. My two homies are both ilwu casuals, and one of them has been an IBU man on and off (inland boatman's union) for like 15 years now. So over the year's I've heard him talk about negotiating contracts with different companies and where the industry is headed. We're going into SF and there are barges and he's telling me how up there it's not uncommon for a barge operation to be run with just a skipper and a deckhand, whereas in LA/LB, if it's a union gig, the norm is that a deckhand always has a partner that isnt a captain, for instance another deckhand or maybe a tankerman. Basically his main talking point was that the job isnt as good as it used to be, companies are getting away with greed and every contract it's harder and harder to hold on to what you have.
