Dock workers eh….this is copied from some where else but gives a fairly good overview of what you can expect. Nothing changes!
In 1942, the USMC was preparing to invade Guadalcanal from New Zealand but had to improvise because the dock workers were on strike. With the Japanese winning at that point, what gave the local workers confidence to undermine the war effort
The union had initiated a strike prior to the Marines going, thus when it was time to go no workforce was found to be there. What gave them confidence? Remember at that time union’s were strong and not necessarily patriotic, using the war as added leverage for demands. The unions would generally be more versed in class politics as seen in communist party literature. The Prime Minister of the time for example had in earlier years been involved in leading a waterfront strike at Wellington in 1913. During the first world war he opposed conscription but after, during the second world war was in favour of compulsory military training. Where sympathy's might have been is another question with changes in attitude like that. Unions did use the war period to get better returns for their workers, not only here but also Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. was not immune. Even in 1944 with ports in the U.K. in preparation for D-Day it was not unknown. There was over 2000 stoppages in 1944 in the U.K. The U.S. government had to make a deal with the mafia for dockworkers to not strike in New York for example. In Australia “ At one point in 1942 a US Army colonel became so frustrated at the refusal of Townsville wharfies to load munitions unless paid quadruple time, he ordered his men to throw the unionists into the water and load the guns themselves. In Adelaide, American soldiers fired sub-machine guns at wharfies deliberately destroying their aircraft engines by dropping them from great heights. Australian soldiers had to draw bayonets to stop the same Adelaide wharfies from stealing food meant for troops overseas”. Of course these were not reported at the time, not all working together toward the same aim as we would like to think today.