The boldest union adaptation to new technology was made by the West Coast’s International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). The industry wanted to introduce containerization, an automated shipping and cargo-loading process that replaced most of the hand-loading that had defined longshore work for centuries. The proposal provoked an intense period of debate and disagreement. ILWU leadership was convinced that resistance to technological change would condemn the ports under their control to oblivion, that other countries, particularly Canada and Mexico, and their domestic rival, the Gulf Coast, would agree to containerization and the stevedore companies would shift West Coast work to those regions. So they demanded an unusual adaptation to the new technology: the company would adopt containerization, and qualified workers would be paid whether they worked or not. This quid pro quo was radical in its implications: for the first time in U.S. history, the workers were claiming a share in the enhanced profits of enterprise not as a bonus but as a right. Under the ILWU/Pacific Maritime Agreement, as long as employees in the “A” category reported for work, they were paid full salary, whether or not they were assigned to move cargo that day. The agreement also provided for a “B” category of employees not covered by the guaranteed wage. A similar deal was concluded by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), which represents workers on the East and Gulf Coasts. The only parallel agreement can be found in the newspaper industry, where printers in the International Typographical Union (ITU), whose hand-typesetting skills were made obsolete by machines, were paid to take extended furloughs for as long as six months or more. But the pattern in other branches of industrial production was that unions simply conceded the usual layoffs. In some agreements, workers were offered severance pay if they accepted permanent displacement; in others, such as the Auto Workers’, laid off employees with sufficient seniority on the job received full pay until they were offered a new job by the company. They were also allowed to refuse relocation to sites outside their residential area, but if they were offered transfers within their region they were obliged to accept them or lose their wage guarantees. The UAW Big Three and farm-equipment agreements have a “thirty and out” provision: a fifty-five-year-old worker can receive a pension after thirty years of employment. In 2000, the pension exceeded $3,000 a month. For those eligible for Social Security benefits, the retirement package has equaled their straight-time hourly earnings.