The decision to sack all Liverpool dockers who refused to cross a picket line last September has now rebounded on the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, as their key customer, Atlantic Container Line, withdraws from the port of Liverpool this weekend as a direct result of the nine month old dispute.
MD&HC shares fell 49 pence in the first hour of trading after the news broke. ACL, which links European ports to the North American coast, will now call at Thamesport, an East Coast Medway port on the Isle of Grain.
The move follows the rejection of the dock company’s latest, “final” offer of 60 jobs, possibly rising to a 100, with redundancy payments of £25,000 for the majority of the 329 men formerly directly employed by MD&HC. The written offer excluded any provisions for the 80 Torside men whose original sacking provoked the dispute.
At a jubilant mass meeting today, dockers continued their demand for full reinstatement and vowed to target the Canadian shipping lines, CanMar and Cast, which compete with ACL.
Andrew Weir Shipping is another likely casualty, its vessels already suffering a near-total boycott of Liverpool trade in Portugal plus go-slows in Italy and Greece. In mid-April, the line told “International Freight Weekly” it would consider leaving Liverpool. Two weeks later, an internal company memo warned the “Master of the City of Manchester” that in view of escalating damage to Andrew Weir containers whilst in the care of MD&HC any such damage should be notified to Andrew Weir “immediately and not at the completion of operations”.
ACL’s departure has been predicted for six months, but only materialised after industrial action escalated in Sweden and in Liverpool itself.
Last December, rank-and-file members of the International Longshoremen’s Association of the US East Coast refused to cross a picket line set up in a Newark blizzard by three Liverpool dockers, delaying an ACL vessel for four days. The shipping line sought an injunction to force longshoremen back to work, but then threatened to leave Liverpool if the dispute was not resolved by 15 January. A series of such deadlines came and went while Mersey Docks tried using the US courts against its own former shop stewards, and then threatened legal action against the ILA for loss of revenue, should ACL leave Liverpool.
More recently, Swedish dockers imposed a 12-hour go-slow on all ACL boats in Gothenburg.
In the last two weeks, Liverpool tug crews have refused to cross dockers’ picket lines. ACL took the risk of navigating under their own steam. A CanMar ship attempted the same, but dropped anchor in the Mersey after drifting towards a sandbank. Other boats suffered 12-hour delays.
By last weekend ACL had had enough. Days before the news had broken, the Bishop of Liverpool was appealing through the media for dockers to reconsider the redundancy package, and even faxed ILA president John Bowers asking his intentions. In view of his public concern with unemployment and its social consequences, the Bishop’s intervention in favour of their redundancy has led dockers to wonder who gave him the ILA fax number.
Mersey Docks’ stance is fluctuating rapidly. Port operations director Bernard Cliff, who has led the dispute in public, told BBC local radio the company had the resources to deal with the loss of trade. But in another radio interview, the chairman of Liverpool Ship Owners and Port Users’ Association, Terry Malone, called on other customers to hold the line and keep faith in the dock company, an indication of just how much is at stake. Bernard Cliff then informed the Liverpool Echo: “the impact could run in many hundreds of jobs, possibly a thousand, not in Mersey Docks alone but in supporting industries such as haulage firms, shipping agents and the like. There is no doubt the decision will have serious job implications.”
The propaganda war now seeks to blame dockers for potential job losses amongst other port employees who have chosen to continue working alongside the scabs.
But the job implications of ACL’s move depend on how long the shipping line stays away, and there is no evidence that ACL has made anything more than a temporary arrangement. As a small East Coast port, Thamesport can’t conceivably rival Liverpool for size or location. Their own managing director, Robin MacLeod, told the Echo: “ACL has had good service in Liverpool and has been a very major customer there. They would be silly to rush away, but if it becomes impossible they may have no choice .” Furthermore, the port authority at Thamesport is Medway Ports Limited, a hundred percent owned by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, suggesting that MD&HC and ACL are not finished with each other.
Meanwhile, the international pressure on the port of Liverpool increased with the arrival of an ITF inspector with a mandate to prevent shipping lines to using seafarers to perform dock work. Sacked dockers are convinced that crews on the North Irish ferry service between Liverpool and Belfast have been lashing and unlashing containers on the boat deck. Mr Brian Allen immediately obtained a promise from the Dutch owners Wagenborg that they would instruct crews not to perform dockers’ work. Over the next week the ITF inspector will target all shipping arriving in the port, including the Churruca (Andrew Weir) and the CanMar Flory.
Support in Britain has also increased in recent weeks following appeals from the dockers. At the meeting today the following recent financial support was announced:
Graphical Paper & Media Union has donated £6566
Ray Williams, Liverpool branch GPMU, addressed the meeting.
Manufacturing Science Finance union donated £4375, with a further appeal going out.
Sue Tallon, MSF, addressed the meeting.
The Communications Workers’ Union has recently donated £35,000. John Ireland, branch secretary of CWU Liverpool, addressed the meeting having been on the picket line all night on their own one day strike.
Jimmy Nolan, chairman of the Mersey Port Shop stewards got a rousing reception when he addressed the recent Unison conference. They donated £10,000 immediately, various appeals to raise another £50,000 very soon
One docker has been to France and returned with £29,000 pounds.
AC Delco workers donated another £2,000.
