Seafarers' strike: where do we go after the NUS climbdown?
Labour Briefing1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
The P&O strikers at Dover have been betrayed by the right wing Leadership of the National Union of Seamen (NUS).
On Thursday May 12th the NUS National Executive Committee ordered an end to all solidarity action and a return to normal work.
The Dover strikers, who have voted to continue their strike, are now dangerously isolated in their major struggle with Britain's biggest shipping employer.
In the preceding weeks, the situation had looked more promising.
On May 3rd Sealink, whose entire fleet was at a standstill through supporting action, obtained an injunction in the High Court requiring an immediate return to work.
To the profound surprise of union militants, Sam McCluskie publicly announced the union's intention to defy the law, accept the consequences (sequestration) and extend the action.
"The NUS is not bricks and mortar, typewriters and desks," McCluskie declared. "It is the men and women who go to sea and stand together to defend their right to work and to fight for justice. If forced to chose between protecting the property of the union or standing by my members I will always choose the latter."
The High Court fined the NUS £150,000 and ordered the sequestration of all its assets, involving the seizure of £2,800,000 in union funds, the closure of national and local offices, the freezing of staff wages, the suspension of its pension fund, the impounding of union cars, and the cutting off of telephones.
The labour movement responded with a massive fund-raising drive. Even the Labour Shadow Cabinet and the NEC called for financial support.
McCluskie went to the TUC (which offered nothing in the way of supportive action) and from there to James Sherwood, Sealink Chairman.
After several days of harried negotiations, a deal was stitched up whereby the NUS would exempt Sealink from strike action and in return Sealink would put extra ships on P&O's strikebound routes — to be crewed by 450 of the sacked P&O strikers.
The jobs would be temporary, ceasing to exist when the strike came to an end.
Norman Willis was so keen on this rotten deal that he even said the TUC would pay the wages of the rest of the strikers, for a period, if they would accept it!
McCluskie fought hard to make the deal stick but it was rejected at a meeting of representatives from all the ports, who demanded an additional 300 jobs from Sealink.
Lorry drivers became involved when a backlog built up on each side of the channel. Drivers blocked the ports in an attempt to force the two sides to a settlement.
Although some of the drivers directed their criticism at P&O intransigence, they were almost all non-union, and many of them were anti-union owner/drivers who simply wanted the strike ended on any basis.
On May 11th, after a week of NUS defiance, the High Court made its next move. The union was fined another £150,000 and warned that bigger fines would follow if contempt of court continued. The same day Sealink threatened to sack all crew members who remained on strike.
This was the final straw for the NUS Leadership. The following day, May 13th, it ordered all those taking supporting action back to work.
McCluskie argued that the odds were now too great and that the strike was crumbling. In fact, the strike was holding remarkably well, given that it was being offered no direction by the union Leadership other than deals with a rival employer.
The Dover strikers met after the rest had returned and voted — with only one against — to continue their strike.
The return to work decision is nonetheless a disaster both for the NUS and the Dover strikers, who are now back in isolation. McCluskie's new strategy for the strike is to join Sealink in a "commercial war" against P&O!
The NUS, he said, would urge the public to use Sealink ferries instead of P&O, on the basis of P&O's safety standards. It is a rerun of the print unions' disastrous "consumer boycott" tactic at Wapping.
The TUC had clearly put pressure on McCluskie, telling the NUS that it would get no support of any kind whilst the strike was illegal. As soon as the return to work had taken place the TUC announced a new £1m fund appeal to help the NUS!
The Dover strikers are continuing their struggle and deserve the full and unstinting support of the labour movement. The central task for them is still to break out of their isolation.
NUS policy must be reversed, even though the NUS Conference, meeting just after the return to work, endorsed McCluskie's action (not without acrimony and bitter accusations).
Other unions have a responsibility as well. P&O scab ships are still being handled by TGWU dockers in Dover. Hull dockers have called for a national port shop stewards committee meeting to tackle this problem.
In the past few days CGT dockers in Calais have worked on the first scab ship to berth in a French port. It is hard to demand international solidarity whilst the TGWU scabs.
The support group movement has been growing in recent weeks and needs to be extended and strengthened to generate financial support, support and the Dover picket line, and political backing.
A week after their betrayal, the NUS leadership has still not been allowed to purge its contempt and recover its funds. The court is now saying that the picket at Dover is illegal since it is more than six-strong and is intimidating to those who want to go to work.
The more we comply with the courts, the more they interpret the law to the employers' advantage.
The anti-union legislation has been strengthened by the betrayal by the NUS Leadership. It is a serious blow to the Dover strikers and a disaster for trade unionism in the shipping industry.
Even more important, it was another lost opportunity — an opportunity to challenge the laws which are the biggest single problem facing the trade union movement in Britain today.