But Byington doesn’t mind, because the reward is a shot at one of the rarest lifelines left for working-class Americans: a unionized blue-collar job. The last time the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and their employers opened up a call for potential employees was in 2004, before the recession hit and the gig economy took off. Many hold other jobs and don’t pick up every available working hour. The ports have yet to recover to our peak year of 2006 and 2007.” 
 
 Jobs are worth it 
 
 And though casual life can be demanding, Dines said it’s worth it. You get full benefits your entire life. Even if it’s not ‘til I turn 90, it’s worth it. Brad Graverson — Staff Photographer 
 
 For the past few days, customers have been streaming nonstop into Patrick Meehan’s usually quiet postal store in San Pedro for a job opportunity not seen in a generation. “It’s fair to describe this as a lottery,” said Chris Tilly, former director of UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. The catch is that once a casual’s number in the system is called, they must physically be at the dispatch hall in Wilmington, said Rich Dines, a Long Beach harbor commissioner and a marine clerk who has worked on the waterfront for more than two decades. DiLeva said she clinched a full-time position in just three years, but she knows folks who have been casuals for more than a decade. Casuals pick up work through a rotating system that gives every member an equal opportunity to work, but they have to be available. The work was unpredictable, he says, and his paycheck was so much thinner than it once was. Lead photo caption: Part-time casual longshoremen outside the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Casual Longshore Dispatch Hall in Wilmington, where some lucky workers will nab a shift.
– It's Willy Wonka's golden ticket but for adults desperate for a blue-collar job in America. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is holding a drawing for 2,400 part-time jobs loading and unloading shipping containers at ports in the Los Angeles area, the Los Angeles Times reports. While these part-time positions don't come with guaranteed hours or benefits, they do come with the possibility of getting promoted to full-time, unionized longshoreman—a position that had an average salary of $161,000 per year in 2016. It's not a sure thing and it can be a long wait—some workers have been stuck as part-timers for 13 years—but one woman who applied for the lottery calls it a "once in a lifetime opportunity." The ILWU hasn't held this kind of drawing since 2004, the Long Beach Press Telegram reports. Back then, more than 250,000 people entered the lottery; up to a million may enter this time around. The Times says it shows "how desperate" Americans are to even get a shot at a "stable, high-paying career working with their hands." That shot doesn't come without risks. The average part-time longshoreman earned just $31,000 in 2016. And while the ILWU says it's holding the drawing to avoid labor shortages at ports, according to the Journal of Commerce, some long-time part-timers warn of days on end without a shift and a tough lifestyle. The deadline for the entry into the drawing was earlier this month; the drawing is scheduled for Feb. 6.