Peace moves at container bases
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from our industrial corresPondent • The peace deal which ended last week's four-day unofficial strike by 9.500 Liverpool and Birkenhead dockers and awarded work at the Aintree container base, 1-1miles from the Mersey Docks, to registered dock labour will provide precedent for similar union claims on jobs at Orsett container base, five miles from Tilbury.
At a mass meeting of Tilbury dockers on Tuesday, Mr. Henry Battie, a delegate to the TGWU's key No. I Docks Group committee, said employers had agreed that the handling of cargo at Orsett should be done by registered dock labour, provided a satisfactory agreement could be reached.
On Monday, the dockers committee decided against lifting their four-month ban on working new container ship berths at Tilbury but called for an urgent meeting with both port and container employers and two Ministers—Mrs. Barbara Castle and Mr. Richard Marsh.
They want a wide-ranging discussion covering all aspects of container working and a chance to voice dockers' fears that the spread of containers could lead to large scale redundancies and employment of nondock labour at inland terminals adjacent to the ports.
The Liverpool deal set three important precedents in its three clauses: 1. Registered dock labour to be employed at the container base at Aintree.
2. Negotiations for a local agreement appropriate to the operation and methods of working at the base to be started immediately between the Liverpool Docks section of the TGWU and the Container Base Federation. 3. Employment of registered dock workers on the completion of the agreement and of the necessary licensing arrangements.
This now supersedes the May, 1968, deal which opened bases to both dockers and other qualified port workers, particularly lorry drivers. In fact. 20 men already employed at Aintree will be taken into dock section membership to complete the -closed shop" arrangement.
Clearly. this is a major break-through by the TGWU dockers who may be prepared to seriously consider lifting their ban on the Tilbury terminals and handling container business which has been diverted to Rotterdam by OCL/ACT.
How fast such a peace move is possible may also depend on the progress of portwide talks on a new pay and conditions deal for all 22.000 London dockers. The men are pressing for £35 for a 35-hour week; the present employers' offer is £32 lOs to £34, including a bonus for a 32+-hour week.