File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-01-14.221, message 50


From: wdrb-AT-siva.bris.ac.uk
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 17:28:49 GMT
Subject: M-I: Workplace support for Liverpool


PLEASE COPY THIS TO RELEVANT LIST AND
INTERESTED INDIVIDUALS

Potential industrial action on Merseyside and the North West to
complement the growing international boycott of Mersey Docks and
Harbour Company was discussed by a meeting of around 60 shop
stewards from 16 companies held on 11 January.

Delegates included contingents from Fords, Vauxhalls, Road Transport
drivers, AC Delco, Post Office, Local Authority, and Further
Education.

Since the first few weeks of the Liverpool Lockout, dockers have
made various impassioned appeals for local industrial action. But
except for tugboatmen who have repeatedly delayed ships, the
response has been limited to a partial strike on May 1, mainly by
UNISON local government staff, and isolated action by AEU members in
an engineering factory. The dockers acknowledge the pervasive
climate of economic fear which has inhibited action in Britain.

Judging by Saturday's meeting, however, the local mood is now moving
in favour of isolating Mersey Docks, whether by shifting contracts
to other ports, refusing to handle individual cargo, or withholding
services, as well as supporting the mass picket on 20th January.

Workplace collections picked up when the recent Ken Loach
documentary "The Flickering Flame" was screened on BBC2 just before
Christmas. The closing sequence, where a retired docker decries the
stream of trade unionists driving through the picket lines as if
their own jobs were secure, had clearly hit home.

The dockers' international coordinator Terry Teague outlined the
worldwide surge now expected in the week of 20 Jan and pointed out
that much of the cargo being boycotted abroad, such as motor vehicle
components and feedstuffs, actually originates in the North West.

As well as an extended discussion of practical options for all
industries, TGWU stewards were particularly keen to examine the
handling of the dispute by their own union. They heard an
unvarnished account of recent machinations as the leadership
threatened to impose a postal ballot on the current offer despite
its overwhelming rejection by sacked dockers, but then drew back.
TGWU stewards commented on the extraordinary and divisive prospect
of their Executive forcing an official ballot in an unofficial
dispute, and were urged to put their views in writing to the union's
General Secretary, Bill Morris.
While Morris apparently "doesn't understand how damaging the
economic fabric of Mersey Docks and Harbour Company will help
resolve the dockers' problem", other TGWU members do. Dock stewards
are to meet the General Secretary on 15 Jan and will inform the
wider movement at the national Dockers Support Groups meeting next
Saturday.

The stewards' meeting also heard of an impending dispute involving
drivers set to lose their jobs as VW-Audi switches its car delivery
contract to the one such firm crossing the picket line in Liverpool.

Finally, the meeting voted unanimously to "confirm their
determination to impose a physical boycott upon any raw materials or
products shipped through the Port of Liverpool to their workplaces,
and on services supplied to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company.

"Such actions will be co-ordinated and last until the dockers are
reinstated.
"Union representatives present call upon the community of Merseyside
to maintain their opposition to casual labour, privatisation and
de-regulation in favour of a dignified life in industry.

"As such we remain opposed to all laws that oppress ordinary people
and destroy their basic human rights."


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