“YOU’RE BETTER off sitting down and let’s get a contract,” said Harold Daggett, head of the International Longshoremen’s Association, the dockers’ union, a few weeks ago. If not, he said, “I will cripple you.” This was no empty threat. On October 1st dockers at 36 ports from Texas to Maine walked off the job after their contract expired. The ports’ giant cranes, which look like enormous metal giraffes, stopped loading and unloading. Ships that did not get to port in time anchored off shore. A few headed to Mexico. “We’re going to show these greedy bastards you can’t survive without us,” said Mr Daggett on the first day of the strike.