Social Context: What Was Being Walled In or Walled Out?
Bulkhead Buildings and Bluebooks

Bulkhead buildings proliferated along the waterfront from that time on as, simultaneously, employers asserted an increasingly aggressive grip on the work force. World War I brought government control of all aspects of the shipping industry, with a dampening of militant unionism. Even after the war, the government-run U. S. Shipping Board remained a major maritime operator and exercised a strong antiunion influence. In 1919, waterfront workers struck to regain conditions lost during the war. Also among their proposals were union control of hiring, as well as stock ownership and representation on the boards of shipping corporations.

Perhaps because of this suddenly radicalized agenda, the 1919 strike ended in a disastrous defeat for the union, culminated by the imposition of a new company-dominated organization, commonly known as the Blue Book Union. This group was swiftly handed a five-year closed shop contract with all dock employers; effectively eliminating the previous worker-controlled union. The Blue Book era was to last 15 years. During that time, employer control and exploitation of dockworkers intensified in the absence of any effective resistance. New bulkhead buildings continued to close off the waterfront, and an additional related spatial strategy was instated—the shape-up, formerly conducted on the individual piers, was now held for all piers in one central location, in front of the Ferry Building. This new arrangement finally divorced the point of hiring from the point of work, and made it less likely that troublesome workers or employment disputes would impinge on the workplace—now solidly isolated and impregnable behind a growing fortress wall. By grouping all prospective workers together in one large crowd, it also maximized the potential for competition among the ranks, and encouraged a greater willingness to accept deteriorating conditions.

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