Labor negotiations for 22,000 dock workers on the West Coast are having US industries biting their nails for fear of disruptions to trade. The dock workers' union says automated ports are job killers and less productive.
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The shipping container turns 65 years old
On April 26, 1956, a freight shipping container was sent out into the world for the first time. The invention by Malcom P. McLean, an American with Scottish roots, revolutionized world trade.
A man and his boxes
In 1956, Malcom McLean, a shipowner and freight forwarder from the US, had a brilliant idea: if goods were shipped together in a box, instead of prepared for shipment individually, a lot of time and effort could be saved. And that meant saving money always a winning argument.
A million crooked backs
McLean may have wanted to make life easier for all the men working their backs off in the world s ports (not just on the US East Coast, where the first containers were shipped). The invention may have helped save their backs, but it also cut down on the number of available jobs.