The Dockers' and Wharfmen's Union

Often regarded as the most militant of Greyhawk's unions, The Dockers' and Wharfmen's Union controls the flow of all trade that reaches the Free City via the Selintan River docks. Union members are the only people permitted to offload and transfer cargoes to warehouses in the city, and they will take drastic action to protect their monopoly. They are not sailors or rivermen, however. Transactions with the union must be undertaken with the utmost care-be it for wages, working conditions, or just an excessively heavy crate, the members are always ready to throw down their tools and strike, blockading ware houses and bringing the wharves to a standstill. It is common knowledge that a small pecuniary consideration added to the standard union porterage fee will ease the transit of cargoes, but occasionally a representative of the Merchants' and Traders' Union must be brought in to arbitrate disputes (the outcome of which normally involves the further exchange of coinage).

The union's apparent militancy is. in fact, a clever ploy on behalf of the Guildmaster. Hugo Dorfmann. Hugo has amassed a sizable personal fortune from those merchants concerned enough to slide the odd bag of gold pieces in his direction to ensure that their cargoes are offloaded promptly and stored safely within city limits (or for cargoes of competitors to be left on board ship to rot). Hugo Dorfmann is nevertheless opposed to real villainy, and his refusal to become involved in Thieves' Guild sponsored smuggling activities has earned him the enmity of the Thieves' Guild in the past. However, the Directorship of the Thieves' Guild was clever enough to realize that the reputation of the union's leader provided a useful cover for their activities so long as they could be kept a secret from him, and thus arranged for members of the Thieves' Guild to be inducted into the Union.

Members of this union have neutral relations with the Rhennee bargefolk. The Rhennee do not use the services of the union's members, preferring to load and unload downriver in the shack town abutting the River Quarter, and union members leave them alone out of respect.