BY PAUL DAVIES AND DEBBIE DELANGE
LIVERPOOL, England - After nearly two-and-a-half years of struggle to regain their jobs, some 300 dock workers here voted at the end of January to end their fight and accept a settlement of 28,000 ($46,760) each. This buyout offer is not being made to an additional 80 dockers who worked for the Torside company, and were also a part of the struggle.

The dockers' fight began in September 1995, in response to the employers' offensive against the dockers' rights on the job and attempts to use more "casual" workers. Some 80 young workers were fired at Torside for refusing to work beyond overtime agreements. Hundreds of other dock workers were locked out and then fired by the Mersey Docks and Harbours Co. for refusing to cross unofficial picket lines set up by the sacked Torside workers. They immediately organized picket lines and support to demand their jobs back. They fought to win the officialdom of their union, the Transport & General Workers Union (TGWU), to make their fight official internationally.

The dispute began a few years after a major assault on the unions on the docks. In 1989 the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had abolished the National Dock Labour Scheme, which forced employers to hire dockers who had been laid off by other dock companies. This opened the door for selective compulsory layoffs, which were used to get rid of trade union activists and older workers.

Liverpool was the one of the only ports in Britain to retain trade union recognition after 1989. Throughout the dispute that began in 1995, the dockers held weekly mass meetings to discuss the fight, hear international speakers, and vote on whether to continue. Among many other guests, they opened their meeting last November to Noberto Codina, a Cuban poet and editor of La Gaceta de Cuba, the magazine of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.

The fight had an impact on many workers around the world, with solidarity strike action being organized in several countries, including the United States and Australia. No action was organized to back the Liverpool dockers at other ports in the United Kingdom, however, and the fight took place when there wasn't a broader rise in sustained union struggles. "We had marvelous support, but it wasn't enough; we needed action," explained Val Bibby, a member of Women of the Waterfront - a group set up by women family members to win support for the dockers struggles.

Jimmy Davies, secretary of the shop stewards committee, said several factors influenced the decision to end the fight. Support from dockers in other countries was becoming more difficult to sustain, he said. In particular, officials of the New York-based International Longshoremen's Association, having faced down a $1.5 million law suit for their action in support of the Liverpool men, were unwilling to continue such action. He also pointed to lack of support in the form of major union struggles in Liverpool and the fact that some 80 dockers had individually accepted the company's latest offer. In December the TGWU executive committee decided not to discuss how the union could give backing to the dock workers fight. "We fought as long as we could. We make no apologies. We couldn't take the fight further," said Davies. He spoke at a meeting called to explain the decision to end the dispute to activists from around the country who had organized dockers support groups. Doreen McNally of Women of the Waterfront reviewed their second year of struggle in Dockers Charter, official publication of the Liverpool Docks Shop Stewards Committee. We "had to learn a lot and to learn fast," she wrote, describing how WOW members would speak alongside dockers delegates at meetings and rallies around the UK and the world. They visited France on 10 different occasions.

"Everyone is still in shock," said Bibby. "There's four generations of history on the dock - we don't intend to leave our heritage to scabs." Jimmy Nolan, chairman of the shop stewards committee, indicated that the union officials were discussing proposals to set up a business to provide a labor supply agency to the employers.

Many workers across Britain followed the progress of the dispute. At the second anniversary rally last September, trade unionists from around the country marched in Liverpool to show their support for the fight for reinstatement. Vince Niles, a worker at the Wylex engineering plant in nearby Manchester, commented, "Many people find themselves in casual jobs with temporary contracts, and feel they have to accept these conditions. The Liverpool dockers stood and fought, their struggle summed up the fight against casual labor."

Paul Davies is a member of Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Workers Union in Manchester.  
 
 
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