During the 1989 IBEW/CWA strike, PacBell replaced a bunch of step-by-step switches with 5ESS in the El Centro area. At the end of the strike, half the strikers didn't have jobs. In the same time frame, the computer center staff management had to figure out how to get all the work done that wasn't being done by the striking workers. Necessity being the mother of invention, the managers replaced manually loaded 9 track tapes with robotic tape drives on the IBM floor and 8mm tapes on the floor with the COSMOS UNIX boxes. The 22 non-management positions were eliminated. The improved tape drive technology could be handled by 1 first level management employee per shift. The same persons that had been the supervisors. Going on strike isn't always a swift idea. PacBell drew the strike out long enough to make sure that the payroll savings exceeded any improvement in pay that might have to be ceded in the negotions.
The longshoremen may learn a similar lesson by walking out. The management will pick one of the ports as a "pilot" site to test the new equipment. The efficiencies gained will finance the upgrades at the other port sites. Going on strike will simply accelerate the implementation. The union would be better off trying to figure out how to integrate the existing employees with the new technology and help the ones destined to be displaced with the task of finding new jobs.
New technology or not these guys days are numbered. As with most jobs that don't reguire an education in California, they will soon be replaced by illegal immigrants. Those that do manage to hang on to their jobs will suddenly be happy to make $15/hr.