The Mersey Docks & Harbour Company could lose its biggest customer, if it does not reinstate 500 dockers sacked for resisting the introduction of casual labour.
The company has been told by Atlantic Containers Ltd that its ships will be withdrawn from Liverpool permanently unless the dispute is settled.
ACL's threat came after its ships were hit by solidarity action by UNITED STATES dockers supporting their sacked Liverpool brothers.
Longshoremen refused to cross a picket line mounted by long-distance pickets from Liverpool (see Diary).
The longshoremen's union also donated £ 5,000, and branches on the west coast of the US pledged active support. Halifax Longshoremen's Association (Local 269) sent £ 2,400.
In Montreal, CANADA, mass meetings of dockers have donated £ 5,000 and said they will boycott ships bound for Liverpool. The Quebec Labour Federation pledged support.
Dockers in Sydney, AUSTRALIA, have said ships will `rust on the berth' if shipowners bring in vessels bound for Liverpool. They have donated £ 15,000, with the promise of more to follow.
Lloyd's List commiserated with Tsvi Rosenfeld, owner of ABC shipping lines, saying that the company was `a victim of what can only be described as exceedingly long range secondary picketing from Australian unions acting in sympathy with sacked Liverpool dockers'.
NEW ZEALAND dockers have also pledged support and donated £ 5,000.
In HOLLAND, dockers at Flushing port, Rotterdam, have asked for a delegation from Liverpool. They handle cargo on vessels going to and from the Medway ports, 100 per cent owned by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company.
A letter from union representatives at the ports of Tenerife, Lanzarote and Las Palmas in SPAIN proclaims: `We stand with you in your fight, this is our and ev- ery worker's fight.' Spanish dockers are themselves engaged on a series of one--day strikes against casual labour.
Dockers in SWEDEN have decided to boycott ships bound for Liverpool.
Dockers in Genoa, northern ITALY, have invited a delegation from Liverpool to the city, and set up meetings with unions and with the directors of an Italian shipping company. The shop stewards' committee wrote to say that they are `carefully following the development of the dispute and the innumerable solidarity actions'.
Messages of support have come from FRANCE and GERMANY, too.
News of the dispute reached JAPAN via the internet, and a message of support has come in from the International Department of the All Japan Dockworkers' Union (Zenkowan).
