The number of containers lifted on and off ships, 36 per stevedore gang an hour, is also unchanged, he said.

Union work rules and Government regulations require each stevedore gang moving a steel container to include someone schooled in the ancient art of sewing torn coffee sacks.

He goes to work in a gang of stevedores headed by Charlie Malik (Jack Warden) a vicious bully, and is befriended by Tommy Tyler (Sidney Poitier), who also supervises a stevedore gang.