Richie Gerrard: Well, internationalism is about the only thing we
can hope for now because we don't seem to be getting much hope
off our own people. Financial support, but no strike support.
They say if it was official no problem we'd all be out with you
but with it being unofficial...
Dockers Charter: Were you correct to go ahead with an unofficial strike?
RG: Oh yes, certainly. Because the law says that you can be
dismissed for being on an official strike, so what's the
difference?
DC: Should the union have made it official?
RG: They should have got the lawyers working on it because it
goes back to 1989, the breaking of our system, you know
registered dock workers and then the employers can do what they
want.
The union's finished now in Liverpool. It's not broken as an organisation, our local officials are broken. The main fella that signed this deal and said it's a good deal before we started all the trouble, he's just disappeared off the scene, an employer lackey.
DC: Why is this strike so important?
RG: Because a bully, a bad employer has just downtrodden fellas
that worked there 30 years. And now they've given this Bernard
Cliff the job, just "get rid of them". They're drunk with power,
it's as simple as that.
DC: The dock company has bought the ports down in the Medway. How
much of a problem is that?
RG: It's most of the problem, because they've brought scab
workers from them ports, Medway dockers doing 2 weeks up here and
2 weeks back home, and they're living inside the dock in
portacabins.
DC: Last week a ship turned around.
RG: The ACL? They call that the jewel in the crown, it's the
biggest ship to come here. Twice a week they come. We got in
touch with our brothers on the East coast ports in the States,
and they said "if it's loaded in Liverpool we'll boycott it". And
the dock company put out "oh we didn't have enough scabs to do
it" but the reason was that ACL now are scared of East coast
dockers.
DC: How confident are you?
RG: Fully confident about the outcome. The lads that want their
jobs back will get the jobs. I'm 56 next week, I wouldn't go back
and work there again anyway. I'll retire, but there's lads of 40
odd years of age with young families. All I want is them to get
their job back.
