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Foreign unions back Tilbury dockers conditionally
Page 29
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• Leaders of Belgian and Dutch transport unions agreed at a meeting in London on Tuesday to back the TGWU in its battle against the threat by Overseas Containers Ltd. to transfer operations from Tilbury to Antwerp. The company's action follows the British union's decision to refuse to work the new container terminal at Tilbury until there is a new productivity deal for the whole port.
The Belgian and Dutch representatives agreed that their unions would resist any attempt at permanent transfer from Tilbury.
From this the situation would appear to be that OCL can carry on using Antwerp, as it has done for the past eight months, without interference, provided the Tilbury terminal is not dismantled, Mr. Jack Jones, TGWU general secretary. said after the meeting that Overseas Container's threat was an interference with the collective negotiations which were taking place. He made it clear that although the employers' offer had been rejected, negotiations would be resumed.
On Monday, Number One Docks Group of the TGWU, after a four-hour meeting, reaffirmed its decision to continue the Tilbury ban. On Tuesday a meeting of shop stewards from the Port of London endorsed this view.
Sir Andrew Crichton, chairman of OCL, commented: "The dockers must have a death wish. They have not come forward with any constructive ideas." While deadlock continued in London, what was described as a "major breakthrough" occurred at Liverpool where docker members of the TGWU were reported to have agreed to handle two transatlantic container services within the next two weeks.