Another drubbing for the TGWU
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Employers too are criticized by NIRC in judgment on Hull Docks 'blacking'
by John Darker
• The Transport and General Workers' Union has been held accountable by the National Industrial Relations Court for the activities of TGWU-accredited shop stewards, including Walter Cunningham, in the Hull docks. In a strongly worded judgment last week in the action brought by Panalpina Services Ltd and Panalpina (Northern) Ltd against the TGWU, Mr Cunningham and North Sea Ferries Ltd, NIRC held that the manner of the shop stewards' election was irrelevant "once they have been accredited".
The National Industrial Relations Court dismissed the argument presented by the TGWU witnesses, and counsel, that disciplinary action against the Hull stewards would drive their members to extremes, and possibly lead to some TGWU members leaving and joining the rival "blue" union, the National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers' Union (NASDU).
Court president, Sir John Donaldson, said that these arguments, "by way of mitigation, for if our judgment is right it can be no excuse", confused the short with the long term. "They also confuse popularity with leadership".
Union quality The judgment went on: "Firm leadership will seldom achieve popularity, but it will achieve respect. The line hitherto adopted by the union is the negation of leadership and bids fair to lose them both popularity and respect. Furthermore, the strength of a union depends not only upon the size of its membership but also upon its quality. Every union has its dissenters and they have a real contribution to make, but members who act in defiance of the union policy of obeying Court Orders are a liability which the union could well be without".
Sir John stressed that the container blacking problem was not exclusively or even mainly that of the union. "Mr Shenton, the union's regional secretary. of the Hull Region, Region 10, rightly points out in paragraph 14 of his affidavit: "in refusing to handle the traffic of the complainants, the members of the union and the members of the other union have been, as I understand the position, in breach of the agreed procudure and are therefore subject to disciplinary process at the instigation of the National Dock Labour Board and of the employers. There have been no such disciplinary proceedings and I believe that this is because those responsible have judged that such proceedings against individual dockers concerned would result immediately in industrial action by all other dock workers in the Hull Docks!"
The NIRC judgment turned to the attitude of Hull employers to the blacking issue.
"Why have North Sea Ferries taken no action? The short answer is that, like the union, they are afraid to do so. In this they are not alone, for we know of no employer in a similar position who has taken any action. As Mr Boyd on their behalf put it, "discretion is the better part of valour". Again, what is wanted is courage and leadership and an ability to distinguish between discretion and short-term expediency-.
Sir John said that Section I of the (Industrial Relations) Act did not only call for representative, responsible and effective trade unions. It called for the same qualities in employers' associations. "Indeed, as paragraph 3 of the Code of Practice makes clear, whilst unions and managements have a joint responsibility for good industrial relations, the primary responsibility for their promotion rest with management. Good industrial relations does not mean a free for all in which the prizes go to the strong and the community goes to the wall. It means a relationshin based on the observance of the law, respect for the right of others and due regard for the general interests of the community. That community includes, but is not limited to, employers and unions. Still less is it limited to registered dock workers. The community means us all."
The judgment concluded: "For these reasons there will be a declaration that the conduct complained of constitutes an unfair industrial practice upon the part of Mr Cunningham and, through him and the other shop stewards, on the part of the union. The interim directions to the union and Mr Cunningham will be made final. The claim for compensation will be stood over. There will be liberty to all parties to apply."
After the judgment Mr Jack Jones, general secretary of the TGWU, said that more than 95 per cent of dockers were working normally and union officers would continue to urge normal working, "in the knowledge that final notice has been given for a national and united withdrawal of labour on June 2". The union's aim was security of employment for dockers and it understood their frustration.
On the day of the court's judgment last week a massive meeting of dockers in London's enclosed docks backed the mass picketing of the lorries of Dagenham Storage and other companies allegedly using non-registered labour to pack and unpack containers. The blacking ban in London is said to apply to any road transport firm attempting to cross the dockers' picketing lines to get into a container packing depot employing unregistered labour. A number of road haulage firms approached by the stewards are understood to have said they would not cross picket lines.
At the London docks mass meeting some speakers described the judgment of NIRC as blackmail. They continued to hold that the court did not exist, nor did its orders, so far as docks shop stewards were concerned.
Last weekend, a mass meeting of 350 drivers on Merseyside decided to support dock workers "in their fight for work that is traditionally theirs". All lorries entering docks will be blacked if their drivers have no TGWU card.
Mr Wally Nugent, TGWU branch chairman, claimed at the Merseyside meeting that those present represented 10,000 drivers in the area. "In supporting the dockers the drivers are protecting their own wages and conditions", he said, adding that the drivers would intensify their national campaign to identify "cowboys" — non-union drivers who were alleged to be undercutting costs and wages.
Dock Labour Company At Hull, Mr Walter Cunningham, the shop stewards' chairman, said at the weekend that the Dock Labour Company sponsored by the shop stewards' committee had now been registered. The committee plans to apply for a port employers' licence and establish the new company with a capital of mom° raised by dockers' contributions.
Commenting on the NIRC judgment, Mr Cunningham said he and his colleagues did not recognize the court. "The shop stewards' committee imposed the blacking and it is the committee who will lift it and no matter what they do to me they will still have to face the national shop stewards who will have the last word."
Mr Cunningham said he was not surprised at the court's criticism of the Transport Union and went on: "They have not carried out their obligations to the men. We have been wanting them to do something about the unregistered labour problem, but they have done nothing and it has been left to the unofficial committees to take steps to fulfil their obligations to the doc kers."
The TUC, in a recent circular, has reaffirmed that any union believing that the Act might seriously affect its interest should consult the TUC before giving evidence to the NIRC.
Unions are advised to write or telephone the TUC setting out the facts and giving the names of other unions likely to be involved. The circular insists that affiliated unions must not initiate action in the NIRC.
The TUC policy now permits affiliated unions to represent members pursuing claims before Industrial Tribunals or appealing to the NIRC on points of law against Tribunal decisions.