UK dockers march for jobs in year-long dispute

LIVERPOOL, England, The Reuters European Business Report:

Thousands of demonstrators brought the northern English city of Liverpool to a standstill on Saturday in support of 329 dockers who were sacked exactly a year ago after refusing to cross a picket line.

Bobby Morton, one of the sacked men, told Reuters that dockers around the world would be taking solidarity action this week.

``Our aim from day one was reinstatement, and the aim is still the same,'' he said.

Police said the marchers numbered about 10,000.

The dispute began when 329 dockers employed by Mersey Docks and Harbour Co , which owns the port of Liverpool, refused to cross a picket line set up by workers from a small dock manpower firm, Torside, who had been sacked in an overtime pay dispute.

Mersey Docks dismissed the men who have rejected several offers from the company to reinstate some of them and pay off the rest.

The company says the dispute has cost it nearly five million pounds but some 60 dockers and 900 other workers have continued to work throughout the dispute and all the Mersey Dock terminals have functioned normally since the end of 1995.

But Mersey Dock spokesman Eric Leatherbarrow claimed that the ultimate aim of the dockers was the resurrection of the national dock labour scheme, a system that effectively gave dockers a job for life. It was abolished in 1989.

The dispute does not have official backing from the Transport and General Workers Union.

The dockers were joined on their rally by groups campaigning, amongst other things, for animal rights and against new roads.

[09-28-96 at 10:36 EDT, Copyright 1996, Reuters America Inc.]