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Too big to handle ?
Page 29
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Is the Transport and General Workers' Union getting too big to be manageable ? The latest docks dispute suggests that the union caters for too many clashing interests to be truly representative of them all.
The Southampton docks dispute (CM December 3 1971) had an area office of the union fighting on opposite sides of the fence in a "Who does what ?" confrontation. Now the process is being repeated in Liverpool but with an interesting addition — the shop stewards are now disobeying the union.
Firstly, the dock members of TGWU "blacked" vehicles of haulage contractors which were driven by TGWU members because they were carrying containers packed by TGWU members who are not dock workers. Instructed by the court to lift the blacking, the Mersey dockers refused. A plea to stop the blacking from the TGWU St Helens office met with a similar response.
What a pity the dockers did not consult their Southampton colleagues before their refusal. Had they done so they would have learned that Southampton dockers not only lost the fight but they also lost traffic. Sealink, which moves 75,000 containers a year across the Atlantic, moved its operations to Clydeport.
But this is more than a demarcation dispute. It is an attempt to wrest traffic from haulage contractors who also happen to be warehousemen. This cannot be allowed and the court has already said so. Unless the Mersey dockers are disciplined there is no saying how far they might go. Might they not next be saying that they should be building the containers to carry the goods which they want to pack ?
Following Wednesday's decision if the blacking continues it will give Jack Jones, the union's general secretary, a wonderful opportunity to display his prowess as a strong union leader and a man who works for the greater good of all his members. He should instruct the dockers of Merseyside to do as they are told or discipline them by dismissing them from the union. In this way he can display to the country that his union is not getting too big to ha;idle.