In the past fifty and more years, the American workplace has been dramatically altered.  Pressing social issues, such as racial equality, economic parity, the role of women in society, emerged as central to the nation’s post-War identity. Addressing these issues among workers across the United States involved struggle and the Port saw its share of strikes, court challenges and change resulting in new and better labor practices.

Unions, African-American and Mexican-American workers, and women who were entering the workplace for the first time – all believed, with justification, that social parity and middle class prosperity could be the dream of the many and not just the few. The workers shared these experiences across the many occupations and industries that made up the large and complex labor base supporting Port and the Ship Channel.