Taken from my booklet GREAT YARMOUTH DOCKERS
https://markwrite.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/great-yarmouth-dockers.pdf
Chapter 6 National Dock Labour Scheme (NDLS) begins
In 1947, the Labour Government introduced the "Dock
Workers’ (Regulation of Employment) Scheme". The scheme, financed by a levy on the employers, was administered by
the National Dock Labour Board, and local boards, made up of equal numbers of
"persons representing dock workers in the port and of persons
representing the employers of such dockworkers". The system was to be jointly administered by
the union and bosses and this gave the former some control over hiring and
firing. It was a giant leap up from starving men fighting each other for a few
hours badly paid, dangerous work.
Each local board was responsible for keeping a register of employers
and workers, paying wages and attendance money, controlling the hiring of
labour, and responsibility for discipline.
The scheme registered all portworkers and guaranteed dockers, provided
they turned up twice a day to have their books stamped to prove their
availability, a basic minimum fallback
wage, whether there was work for them or not.
Under the scheme, dock work was considered a "job for life",
with any registered docker laid off by any of the 150 firms associated with the
scheme either being guaranteed employment elsewhere or, by 1989, a £25,000 pay
off.
The introduction of the NDLS did not though bring to an end industrial
disputes on the docks. With the TGWU refusing to make any of them official,
dockers were often forced to rely on their own industrial muscle. In 1955,
16,000 dockers in Manchester, Liverpool and Hull left the TGWU and joined a
small London-based union, the National Association of Stevedores and
Dockers. A long recognition strike was defeated.
Dockers’ militancy did though not drop and it proved highly effective
in the 60s and 70s. Dockers still had the power to shut down the country.
But in the 1960s a technological revolution changed things
dramatically. Containerisation, where cargoes were packed into giant containers
in factories or special depots, meant dockers, who had previously humped
cargoes on their backs, could now roll the giant containers on and
off specially designed ships. Unloading a
ship could take one tenth of the time compared to old style practices.
Containerisation presented the employers with a strong incentive to reorganise
the ports.
In 1964 the Labour government appointed a
Royal Commission under Lord Devlin to investigate strikes on
the docks, and then implemented the
Commission report to 'decasualise' the
docks.
Dockers were to be taken into permanent
employment with a particular employer, instead of being hired
out for some many half-days by the Dock
Labour Board. They therefore lost a big
part of the control the union had over hiring
and firing through the Dock Labour Board,
which would only be the fallback employer
for a pool of unattached dockers who did not have a regular employer.
It meant the dock labour force could be more easily cut down over the years as modernisation took place.
Looking back, it could be argued that the
dockers' answer should have been obvious: increase workers' control and
modernise on that basis, using the advantages of modernisation to benefit the
workers. A large minority of dockers wanted the nationalisation of the ports
and most wanted to expand workers' control rather than give full control back
to the bosses.
1970 National Dock Strike
On 16 July 1970 all of the Yarmouth NDLS registered dockers joined the
national dock strike, which had been called following a TGWU national delegate
conference the previous day. As tankers
were not worked by dock labour staff at Yarmouth they were not affected.
Average earnings
Yarmouth dockers, including overtime, in the first three months of
1970, earned on average £38 17 shillings and 7d a week. The national average
was around £3 a week less and the highest earnings were at Ipswich where the
average weekly pay was £45 5 and 10d.
The national strike, the first in the industry for nearly half a
century, lasted nearly 3 weeks, led to the declaration of a State of Emergency
and was only concluded after a government-sponsored inquiry.
From the outside it appeared that it had been provoked by the national
employers’ association and the TGWU over basic weekly pay bargaining. Behind
the scenes, however, the dispute was also about the relationship between the
membership and the officialdom of the union, which had been antagonistic for
many years, plus the revolutionary changes taking place in the handing of
cargo.
Dockers took strike action for a pay rise of £11 a week. Around 47,000
dockers nationally were involved. The strike hurt imports and exports and the
British Army were placed on standby to handle food supplies but most dockers
were content to handle perishable goods and the strike was largely peaceful.
Lord Pearson was charged with ordering a court of inquiry and awarded
an average 7% pay rise, which was at first rejected by the dockers but
ultimately accepted.
The Yarmouth Mercury of Friday, July 24, 1970 reported that a
long stoppage could cause ‘real trouble’ and that since the strike then ‘except
for a few tankers, and some vessels bound for Norwich with grain cargoes, no
ships have entered the harbour.’ The strike had resulted in the Port and Haven
Commission, whose income came from tolls and charges, losing about £1800.
No shipments of vegetables or general cargo had been landed at the
Norfolk Line’s roll on roll off.
The paper reported that Yarmouth dockers had agreed that ‘if supplies
of food needed replenishing arrangements would be made for this. They will also
work supply ships in the event of an emergency involving danger to life and
limb.’
The following Friday the Yarmouth Mercury reported that news
had come through that the dockers’ national delegate conference had accepted
the proposals of the Pearson report. The paper believed that the changes would
not be of great benefit to Yarmouth dockers except for the fact that overtime rates
would be increased.
The paper also reported that in the previous week ‘six ships from
various continental ports with wheat for Norwich had been discharged by the
port of Norwich non-union dockers.’
Chapter 8 1972 National Dock Strike
On 28 July 1972 an official national dock strike began to safeguard jobs.
No cargo was to be handled by the country’s 42,000 NDLS registered dockers.
Roll-on roll-off ferries were still though set to pass through railway ports
like Dover and Folkestone.
Dockers were striking at plans for compulsory redundancies as well as
threats to their jobs from container firms using cheaper, casual labour.
TGWU National Docks Delegates voted 38 to 28 in favour of action and by
doing so rejected a special joint committee report that had been established by
the industry and headed by Lord Adlington, chairman of the Port of London
authority, and Jack Jones, TGWU general secretary. Committee members had
approved a payment scheme to pay off 2,500 unfit dockers or over 55-year-old
dockers. Dockers’ delegates from the larger ports were particularly opposed to
the proposals. Despite the existence of NDLS, between 1966 and 1972, 20,000
dockers’ jobs had been lost.
Earlier in 1972 a one-day unofficial strike, organised by the unofficial
National Port Shop Stewards Committee, was supported by 25,000 dockers and on 7
March 14,000 London dockers walked out. The Industrial Relations Act had been
passed by the Heath government with the intention of controlling wages. A key
part of this was the National Industrial Relations Act (NIRC) which had the
power to fine workers and unions. The strike action by its members’ saw the
TGWU fined.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) policy was for non-registration with the
NIRC but the TUC, fearing for its own funds, abandoned the TGWU whose members
expected the union leadership to launch a national strike. There were strikes
against fines by Southampton, Preston and Merseyside dockers.
Action in Hull led to a court case against Walter Cunningham, chair of
Hull stewards, who refused to attend and pay a fine, risking jail.
The national unofficial campaign then saw London dock stewards’ picket
both Dagenham and UK Cold Storage but with most drivers refusing to honour the
picket line the stewards moved to picketing depots directly. This was much more
successful with lorries turned away at places such as Chobham Farm in
Stratford.
There then followed a series of court cases that on 4 July 1972 saw
Midland Cold Storage apply to the NIRC for an order to stop picketing. Seven
summoned dockers did not appear at court and they then defied a court order to
stop picketing or encouraging others to do so. On Friday 21 July arrest
warrants were issued for five dockers for contempt of court.
Four of the five were arrested the following day and sent to Pentonville
Prison. Vic Turner, the fifth, was on the picket line the following day.
Picketing was shifted to the prison and widespread dock strikes broke out with
an estimated 40,000 dockers out.
Delegates were sent to Fleet Street, the then home of the national press
and the papers were brought to halt. A prison demonstration attracted 30,000
people.
Faced with this potentially revolutionary situation the TUC, which was
previously opposed to solidarity action, was forced to call a one-day national
stoppage the following Monday. (31 July) This would have been only the second
ever general strike called by the TUC, the first having taken place in 1926.
Fearing a general strike, the government too was forced to concede. On 26
July 1972 a Law Lords ruling saw the case against the five dockers collapse.
Amidst jubilant scenes the Pentonville 5 were released the following day. 24
hours later the official national dock strike began. On 4 August the government
was forced to call a state of emergency.
All Great Yarmouth dockers who were not on holiday or sick supported the
jailed London dockers by taking strike action at the start of the week
beginning Monday 24 July. 30 Lowestoft dockers also joined the national strike.
Mr Len Chapman, the TGWU district official said that in both ports the
union “had built up a reasonable relationship with the port employers and I
regret that the Industrial Relations Act has brought about the one thing we
have managed to avoid for years.”
The official National Strike, which did not affect ships supplying gas
rigs and oil tankers bringing fuel to power stations, was supported by all 130
Yarmouth and Lowestoft dockers and close to 30 of the former managed to
persuade seven Norwich stevedores to join the strike. The strike caused fruit
to be in very short supply locally and this led to prices doubling.
On Thursday 17 August, Yarmouth dockers voted in line with the decision
of the TGWU delegate conference the same day, to return to normal working from
midnight on Sunday. However, M John Smith, branch secretary, told the Yarmouth
Messenger that “in the event of any unofficial strike action in other ports,
Yarmouth men would not handle any diverted cargo.” Smith told reporters his
branch felt a great deal had been achieved and he calculated that the backlog
of ships could be cleared in about for days if employers agreed to overtime
working.
Shop stewards from eight ports had decided to maintain an unofficial
stoppage which ultimately collapsed leaving the dockers to accept an amended
Jones-Adlington agreement. This included ending the temporary unofficial
register that allowed unregistered dockers to work on the docks.
The successful strike in 1972 did not though prevent the long-term
decline of the dock industry and the number of jobs in it, especially NDLS
jobs. By 1989 just under 9,000 dockers were covered under the NDLS and having
successful taken on and defeated, amongst others, the steel workers, miners and
printers then Margaret Thatcher, enjoying her third term in office was happy
enough to destroy another group of organised workers in the dockers.
It is a story covered in a 2016 blog article by Iain Dale, a radio
presenter these days with LBC.
From 1987 onwards, Dale worked for the National Association of Port
Employers (NAPE) and, with Nicholas Finney, his boss, whom Dale describes as
the ‘mastermind behind the lobbying campaign to get rid of this iniquitous
piece of employment legislation’, by which he means the NDLS.
He goes on to state “it remains the greatest achievement of my life” and
claims it “led to previously moribund ports having the ability to thrive.”
On
6 April 1989, the Employment Secretary, Norman Fowler,
told MPs the scheme had become 'a total anachronism' that
stood in the way of a modern and efficient ports industry. The 60 British ports who were in the NDLS argued
constantly that the ports were at an economic disadvantage and that
unregistered ports and European docks were taking their business.
In announcing
plans to bring forward legislation to scrap the NDLS, Fowler offered assurances
that any docker laid off as a result of the scheme being abolished would be
compensated up to the value of £35,000. Fowler stated that port employers would not return to using mass
casual labour. This proved not to be the case.
Strike action was held up for three months due to legal wrangles as NAPE
used the courts to try and block any fightback. The port employers’ actions led
to unofficial action in May 1989 at Tilbury, Liverpool, Lowestoft and Bristol.
Other ports however remained at work and TGWU officials eventually persuaded
strikers to return to work until all the legal restrictions that were
obstructing the right to strike had been defeated in court. By the time strike
action did take place the NDLS had been abolished.
A second national ballot produced a majority of 6,200 against 2,100 in
favour of strike action and on 11 July 1989 many ports stood still as dockers
mounted pickets at the gates. However, during the first couple of weeks of
action a number of small ports began to return to work and at others a number
of dockers took voluntary redundancy of up to £35,000.
Nevertheless, many dockers remained on strike but, hampered by the
anti-union laws, when they were then unable to picket out ports that had
previously been covered under the NDLS such as Felixstowe and Dover the strike
ultimately collapsed with a number of key militants, especially at Tilbury,
finding themselves victimised and out of work.
From then on – as covered in the reminiscences section that follows – all
those who had previously been covered by the NDLS found their hard-won wages
and conditions being quickly and permanently destroyed.
Six years after the NDLS was scrapped, 500 Liverpool dockers, the most
militant in the UK, were to be locked out of their workplace and after a heroic
two-year struggle (1995-97) in which they looked mainly overseas for support
they were defeated.
