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How Much Does Law Matter - Labor Law, Competition, And Waterfront Labor Relations In Rotterdam And U.S. Ports, Robert Kagan

Robert Kagan

In both the Netherlands & the US, law has helped rationalize the hiring of port labor & provide dockworkers greater security. However, US longshoremen have captured a larger share of the productivity gains flowing from the mechanization of cargo handling than have Dutch dockworkers. At the same time, the constraints imposed by US longshore unions have made container terminals in the US less efficient & more costly to users, as compared to Rotterdam terminals. These differences can in part be explained by US labor law, which encourages a more adversarial, self-seeking union posture than does the labor law structure in …