A person who loads and unloads ships at a dock, moving cargo on and off vessels.
Compound of 'dock' and 'worker' (from Old English 'weorc'). This term became common in the 19th-20th centuries as industrial shipping expanded and formalized dock labor as a distinct profession.
Dockworkers were among the first workers to form powerful unions in the early 1900s—their strategic position controlling the entire flow of international goods gave them surprising bargaining power against massive shipping companies.
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