File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1996/96-12-27.212, message 5


From: wdrb-AT-siva.bris.ac.uk
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 1996 09:10:33 GMT
Subject: M-I: Liverpool dockers reject latest final offer


Please copy the following to all relevant lists and interested parties:

Will Brown	Bristol


Liverpool dockers reject "ultimate offer"

A packed mass meeting of Liverpool dockers on Friday 20 December voted
overwhelmingly to reject the "ultimate offer" from Mersey Docks and
continue their fight for reinstatement. All eyes are now on the world
strike, just one month away.

Dockers had spent all week reading and considering the details,
negotiated in a 6 hour meeting last Monday between the company, union
officials, and shop stewards. The package, restricted to the 329 men
formerly employed by MDHC or Coastal Containers, entailed:

* "in the region of 40 jobs (which) might be provided" in ancillary
areas: Grain Terminal, Floating Plant, Boatmen, Docks & Stages,
Seaboard Environmental Services.

* No cargo handling vacancies are currently on offer but a register of
former dockers could be created which would guarantee an interview for
any future vacancy arising.

* a fixed term UKp3,000 contract for all 329 men, giving 12 weeks
reinstatement without reporting for work, to allow recruitment for the
40 jobs and a joint company-union approach to pension fund trustees re
continuity.

* Men who do not seek or gain re-employment will then be made
redundant and given UKp25,000 severance.

* The severance payment to constitute "full and final settlement of
all claims" except industrial injury.

* The offer to be conditional on a secret ballot to be conducted by
31st December.

* "If the offer is rejected, no further offer will be made and the
opportunities for jobs and severance payments will be lost for good."

* UKp2,000 ex-gratia payment for former employees of Nelson Stevedoring.

* No reference to former Torside employees.

To encourage the freest possible debate, supporters and the media were
excluded from the mass meeting while TGWU Deputy General Secretary
Jack Adams and Regional Secretary Dave McCall attended as invited
guests. All were urged to speak their minds, whether for or against.

In a 90 minute discussion, docker after docker rose to attack the
offer and the union's refusal to come out fighting while scabs
continue to do the work of TGWU members. They spoke of issues of
principle - respect for a picket line, solidarity with Torside and
each other, their children's future, what their fathers had fought
for, how they will be remembered - and the tide of public opinion now
willing them to win.

Jimmy Davies reported that donations were pouring in after the Ken
Loach documentary "The Flickering Flame" was televised Wednesday
night. A highly placed businessman who warned last year the dockers
had no chance, rang Davies after the programme to say his contacts in
the shipping industry reckon Mersey Docks have no idea what they're
doing and the dockers should stay solid!

In the end, there were two votes, both overwhelming with less than 15
opposed. First the offer was rejected. Then the men voted to dispense
with a postal ballot.

The stewards asked Jack Adams to report these decisions to TGWU
General Secretary Bill Morris and urge him to respect the dockers'
views. They further call on Morris to endorse the International
Transportworkers Federation (ITF) call for support for the
international Day of Action next month.

Speaking after the mass meeting, the leader of Liverpool Chamber of
Commerce told the BBC he deplored the dispute's high profile and urged
both sides to seek a realistic settlement. So much for the "ultimate
offer"!

LabourNet report by Greg Dropkin
http://www.labournet.org.uk

More info: chrisbailey-AT-gn.apc.org




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