Tens of thousands who applied for a shot at one of America’s best-paid blue-collar jobs found out Friday whether they landed the gig when the Pacific Maritime Association published the sequential list of names of those qualified for part-time positions on the waterfront.

It wasn’t all smiles.

“Damn, damn,” said Jose Rodriguez, a drug counselor on Skid Row, as he scrolled through the list of winners.

“I don’t see anybody that I know and I know a lot that applied, like 100 or so,” he said. “When you see it’s not you, it’s heartbreaking. That’s why I don’t play the lottery.”

For those who applied, the names can be found at: apps.pmanet.org (click on “LA/LB casual draw results”).

The last time the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the PMA, which employs union dockworkers, opened up a call for potential employees was in 2004, before the recession hit. At the time, more than a quarter-million people applied for 3,000 part-time jobs.

This time around, about 80,000 put their names in for the drawing, and 25,000 were picked out and placed in sequential order. The first 2,300 on the list will be eligible for a part-time dockworker position that can lead to full-time employment, PMA officials have previously said.

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Those full-time dockworkers in Los Angeles and Long Beach earn $123,278 on average, get full free medical coverage and receive a pension, according to the PMA, which represents the terminal operators.

It’s widely considered one of the best blue-collar jobs available. No university schooling is required and all training is provided by the union.

Peter Russell, a San Pedro resident, didn’t immediately see his name in the list.

“I figured it would be that way,” he said. “I don’t have much faith in their system.”

Negotiated between the ILWU and PMA, the controversial lottery process has been criticized over the years for being a two-tiered system that favors ILWU friends and family.

How it works

Anyone can put their name in the drawing by sending in a postcard, but ILWU members get a specially marked postcard for their friends and family.

The two are placed in separate barrels and drawn randomly from alternating piles. The two groups hired an outside party, Moorpark-based InterOptimis, to conduct the drawing behind closed doors, stoking distrust from those outside the process.

The drawing, which began in February, took months to complete and was marred early on by disputes between the union and PMA over the process.

“I feel like this is something set up,” Rodriguez said. “A drawing should be done in public, especially for this.”

It’s easy to understand the skepticism.

The PMA doesn’t take applications. To get a full-time job on the docks, one has to first be a so-called casual. Those jobs are landed only through the drawing and some can stay in the positions for more than a decade. Casuals start about $25 an hour but their base rate adjusts as they gain experience. Also, they have no benefits.

In all, there are about 14,000 dockworkers in the Los Angeles and Long Beach port complex and thousands more casuals.