Liverpool dockers' dispute (1995–1998)
Initially, five Torside workers were dismissed following a dispute regarding overtime pay, who in turn formed a picket line that other dockers refused to cross in solidarity.
The media's reaction to the dispute was unenthusiastic – the BBC's political correspondent for Liverpool suggested that editors did not find the story appealing while other organisations portrayed the dockers as dinosaurs.
[7] Dockworkers saw their living standards and income gradually eroded in order to ensure that trade union relations with dock companies remained cost-effective.
To ensure dockers accepted the revised contracts, Mersey Docks advertised new jobs locally, receiving thousands of applications and interviewing many, yet no single individual was employed on a permanent basis.
[15] Labour laws passed by Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government of the 1980s and 1990s, such as the Employment Act 1980, made it illegal to take part in secondary action, except in limited circumstances.
[4] Within the first few weeks of the dispute, local parliamentary representatives met with Mersey Docks to consider a progressive solution and attempted to instill the importance of what it meant to dockers and their families alike.
[15] Robert Parry, Member of Parliament for Liverpool Riverside, was inundated with letters from dockers and their families who were astonished and bewildered at the thought of being unemployed.
In October 1995, Member of Parliament for Liverpool Garston Eddie Loyden gave a speech in the House of Commons, in which he said: It is 1995, and we are returning to the dark days of threatened casualisation.
As a ballot had not been held, the union declared the strike action to be unofficial,[1] meaning the strikers were in breach of contract with Mersey Docks.
Mersey Docks terminated contracts and advertised for replacement labour within 24 hours, at lower rates of pay and under different conditions.
[13] The timing of the dispute coincided with the emergence of the World Wide Web, with dockers among the first to embrace the technology to communicate their plight beyond the national media.
[1] Organised workers were generally unwilling to take solidarity action through fear of victimisation, with bitter defeats such as that of the 1985 miner's strike still fresh in memory.
Following the ballot, Mersey Docks made the same offer on an individual basis for a limited period of time, with assurances that it would remain confidential.
[30] There is no single reason for the length of the dispute, although the area's militant history of trade unionism, coupled with a lack of other jobs the dockers could take, were contributing factors.
[5] Following the dispute, some dockers bought a semi-derelict bar named The Casablanca on Hope Street in Liverpool city centre, later renamed to The Casa.
[32] The funding source is primarily from the main bar, whilst small offices on the upper floors provide support and training facilities.
In 2012, General Secretary of Unite the Union Len McCluskey, himself a former dockworker, invited sacked dockers to return to the docks for the first time since the dispute ended.
The intention was to help bring unionisation back to the docks by offering sacked dockers the opportunity to share their experience and knowledge with the 280 dockworkers in Liverpool.
Whilst the objective in seeking international support was to hope Mersey Docks backtracked on their stance to casualise the workforce, the ultimate consequence was isolation of the dockers, particularly at a national level.
[37] The Internet offered an opportunity for dockers to engage with worldwide trade unionists without needing to channel messages via their own union and government.
[37] Until late 1996, ITV show This Morning was broadcast at Liverpool's Albert Dock, yet failed to mention or discuss the dispute and struggles of dockers picketing just miles away from the studio; when questioned, the programme producer suggested that "people just don't want to know".
[36] In late 1997, the newly elected Labour government discarded appeals to its leadership and former hard-left to reverse anti-trade union legislation enacted by the former Conservative administration.
Consequently, it brought about a request from the government for the union leader Bill Morris to hastily end the dispute, at the former dockers' expense, with the termination of all hardship payments and the acceptance that the jobs would not be reinstated.
[8] Tony Blair believed the dockers were ultimately responsible for the defeat through an unwillingness to alter their own views and "long-standing abuse of monopoly power"[38] and would later provoke a trade dispute in 2002 following the collapse of relations with union bosses with his stance on the 2002 firefighter's dispute; Bill Morris suggested around this time that it was difficult to find differences between the Labour and Conservative parties.
[13] The shipping company, then one of Mersey Docks' largest customers with an estimated annual value of £4 million (equivalent to £9,483,655 in 2023), ultimately did pull out of the port in June 1996, citing the sympathy action taken by American dockers, although resumed services the following month.
[4] In November 1997, Jimmy Nolan, Merseyside Port Shop Steward secretary said: Mersey Docks had suffered a 23 per cent reduction in the number of ships using Liverpool since the dismissal in September 1995.
[20] Picket lines which blocked and restricted access to the port cost Mersey Docks "millions of pounds" through lost labour hours and shipment delays.
[35] Anarchist pop group Chumbawamba performed their hit single "Tubthumping" live at the 1998 Brit Awards in support of the Liverpool dockers.
Later in the evening band member Danbert Nobacon jumped onto Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's table proclaiming "This is for the Liverpool Dockworkers!"
