One of the oldest cliches in Hollywood is that, if you want a story involving insane levels of corruption and over-the-top mob tactics, you should probably have a lot of dockworkers in your film. Some of the most famous movies ever made, like “On the Waterfront” starring Marlon Brando, made use of this conceit involving longshoremen. For generations, everyone’s understood that this industry functions a bit like a fiefdom, independent of the rest of the country. It promotes from within. It protects its own. And when it wants something, it’s not afraid to shut down the U.S. economy in order to get it.
Over the years, various presidents have had to tangle with the dockworkers and their unions. Some of these presidents, like FDR and Obama, have granted dockworkers massive concessions. Other presidents, like George W. Bush, went to court and used the Taft-Hartley Act to end strikes…
