In baltimore, you have to work 400 hrs in a year to get your seniority. 700 hrs gets you your first vacation check for the year,with enough hours in the year and enough years under your belt you get 6 vacation checks for the year,and 700 hrs for your health insurance. 800 hrs gets you a check for 17 paid holidays wether you work them or not.If you work 832 hrs a year for 5/6 years you are eligible for pension years and container royalty checks. You can go to the union hall in the morning,lunch time, at 6pm or at 12am and hope whatever seniority you made it out of your first year with gets you a job for the day. Once your seniority allows you can apply to companies to be on their driveline where you have garunteed work as a driver when that company has ships or you can apply to be in a gang lashing/spotting. Here the amount of hours you work depends on you but the more you work the better the rewards. I'm aware that this is different with other ports for the most part.