\"Unofficial\" action stymied, but… New chance for dockers!
Labour Briefing1980sTranscribed by hand from the printed page.
As we go to press, the Law Lords have upheld the appeal by the TGWU and legalised a dock strike.
However, the ruling comes two days after the expiry of the 28 day deadline for the implementation of the strike ballot.
Presumably (since he has not yet said so) Ron Todd will now call another ballot for an all-out official strike — although if this is to take place before the abolition of the Scheme it will have to be quick.
Todd and the General Executive Council of the TGWU managed to break the unofficial dock strike (called by the National Port Shop Stewards Committee) following the outlawing of official action by the Court of Appeal.
The strike had involved over a third of Britain's registered dockers. Tilbury, Liverpool, Bristol, Ipswich, Great Yarmouth, and ports in Scotland, Wales, and the North East walked out.
But the disowning of the strike by the TGWU and the failure of key ports such as Hull and Southampton to join the stoppage (on the basis of support for the "official line") led to its quick fragmentation.
On Saturday June 17th, the Port Stewards Committee was forced reverse its decision and advise the ports remaining on strike to return to work to avoid isolation. They had little alternative.
These events have inflicted damage of historic proportions, not just on the dockers, but on the British trade union movement as a whole.
By insisting from the outset that the the TGWU would only support the dockers within the law Ron Todd gave the go-ahead to the courts to launch new legal attacks on the unions and establish wide ranging new case law.
No sooner had the unofficial strike started to collapse (after being repeatedly attacked by Ron Todd in the media) than the port employers began to push home their advantage.
Employers in the Port of London have refused to accept dockers off the Tempory Unattached Register — directly flouting the NDLS even before it is abolished.
This example, which is likely to be followed by other port employers, shows clearly what their attitude will be if they win this battle. Few of the present registered dockers will survive and none of the militants.
The dockers' case, and with it their hopes for the future, was put back in the legal domain with the appeal to the House of Lords — hardly well known for their support of the working class. The task posed is still to break the law. The courts may have decided, retrospectively, not to ban the planned dock strike, but they have still managed to demobilise it and disqualify the ballot.
A fresh ballot opens the way for fresh legal moves from the employers.
The TGWU should now ballot the dockers, complete the ballot before the Scheme is abolished, and then give full backing to a strike — breaking the law wherever necessary to make it successful.
The TGWU's Biennial Delegate Conference, which meets at the end of June, is the union's highest body. It has the power to give full support to the dockers.
The issues involved — above all, the right to strike, and conduct a strike successfully — affect the whole union, and in fact the whole labour movement. That message has to be put across at the Conference.