End Game in Liverpool?
Union leaders are pressing the Liverpool dockers to end their dispute, to avoid embarassing an incoming Labour government. Neil Murray reports In the run up to parliamentary elections in Britain, leaders of the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) are trying to negotiate an end to the 18-month dispute. This doesn't just reflect the natural urge of most union leaders to close down disputes. Nor is it simply the latest in the series of attempts by TGWU leaders to pressure the dockers to accept a pay-off instead of winning their jobs back. Union leaders are worried that, unless the dispute can be ended before the May Ist general election, it will be an embarrassment to the incoming Labour government they expect. In similar moves, the public sector union, UNISON, has disowned the long strike of Hillingdon Hospital workers against a wage cut and the leaders of the four unions at Magnet, where the work force was sacked
The Liverpool dock workers were locked out in late 1995, when they refused to cross a picket line set up by ancillary workers who had been sacked for refusing to work overtime at short notice. The dockers demands are simple - reinstatement for all and scabs out. Several times the employers have made "final" offers to buy out the dock workers and these have been overwhelmingly rejected in both mass meetings and secret ballots.
In the face of Britain's anti-union laws, which put their dispute outside the law, and the refusal of the TGWU leadership to confront these laws by making the dispute official and seriously seeking support from other sections of workers, the dockers have turned to dock workers world-wide to make
The dock workers have built up an incredible network of support among other dockers internationally. They have had two international days of action, supported by strikes, demonstrations and pickets of ports around the world. They have held several international conferences, and continually tour other countries gaining financial support and solidarity actions. They even managed to win International Transport Workers' Federation support for their last day of action. Akinobu Itoh, Assistant General Secretary of the National Council of Dock Workers' Unions of Japan, recently visited Liverpool to address a dockers' meeting
All this contrasts with the situation in Britain, where the TGWU has only given token support, has been slow to inform its other members of the dockers struggle, and there has been virtually a media black out throughout the dispute.
The TGWU leadership has brokered several deals with the company over the heads of the dockers and their shop stewards. Each deal has been rejected. They have continually put pressure on the stewards to accept these deals or lose what little support they get from the union. The TGWU leadership has insisted on postal ballots on deals, rather than accept the dockers insistence on decisions being made by mass meetings, because they hope that a docker voting from home is more likely to accept a large pay-off. Trick or treat?
These negotiations have now taken a new turn. The TWU leadership seems at last to have recognised that the dockers are unwilling to accept a pay off, rather than winning their jobs back. The union now suggests that the dockers should form a co-operative, a "Labour Supply Organisation" from which the company would employ its workforce. Dockers' shop stewards are adamant that this means a monopoly on work, allowing them to enforce a "scabs out" policy. But this is not certain. The TGWU leadership has excluded the shop stewards from its talks with the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (MDHC). The strikers do not know the details of the deal they are being asked to accept!
Some suspect that the dockers shop stewards have fallen into a trap set by the TGWU bureaucracy. Once they agreed to putting forward the LSO proposal, the outcome seemed inevitable, which was certainly bad for morale among strikers and their supporters. The LSO proposal has caused particular consternation among the dockers' supporters in ports around the world. Meanwhile, the TGWU bureaucracy persuaded the Docks and Harbour Board that it was in their own interest to seek a deal, which the union leadership would "sell" to the dockers via a ballot. Who will control the hiring hall?
In an open letter to striking dockers, US dockers' leader Jack Heyman (ILWU Local #10) warned that "At this most critical stage of the conflict it is essential that the dockers know precisely what is being formulated. There must be time to discuss the labour supply question fully before it is put to a vote." Is it fish or fowl, worker-controlled or company-controlled? Will it be a form of workers' control as the ILWU exercises through its hiring halls with the docker's right to choose his job and elect union job dispatchers? Or will it be a cloned-off unit that disavows any connection to the company, yet screens out union militants? MDHC claims they no longer want to be direct employers, but they still want control over labour [...] Any supportable labour agreement must include all the docks."
IT COULD NE A ROTT
BE YOU
SCABS O
ORT THE DOCKERS
The Liverpool stewards are now trying to backtrack from the TGWU trap by emphasising that their demands are that Drake International and other agencies be removed from the port along with the strike-breakers, full reinstatement for the sacked dockers to ensure continuity of all pension rights whether or not individuals then choose to leave the industry, the right to be involved in supplying labour to every area of port operations, and dockers control over working conditions. It isn't over till it's over
Whatever political pressure the Labour Party and TGWU may feel to end the dispute by any means necessary, their problem remains: why should men and women who have fought 18 months to uphold their right to refuse to cross a picket line now settle for a compromise on the employers' terms?
According to US dockers' leader Jack Heyman, dockers outside Britain are ready to intensify their solidarity. During the International Day of Action nearly 100 ships were stopped just on the US West Coast. "The bottom line as stated by dockers is 1) Scabs out. 2) Dockers to get dockers' jobs, not ancillary jobs. 3) A dignified retirement for those who choose to hang the hook. These are winnable demands. What is needed is another push to hit scab cargo internationally and mobilising Merseyside workers along with us."* Some material used in this article was first distributed via LabourNet. Note 1. The company has apparently expressed its willingness to work with a new, union-recognised Labour Supply Unit, but so far only in the General Cargo and Timber areas. They are also said to have responded favourably to the concept of a "minimum standards agreement" covering all stevedoring operations, as outlined in the Labour Supply document. MDHC has also proposed that the company and union jointly fund a business analysis. The Labour Supply Unit would allow companies to contract only those workers they require for each job, but prevent savage competition between workers through a transparent seniority system and restricting the size of the labour pool.
April 1997 #287 9