New Proposals

The fresh options, drawn up over the last two months in close collaboration with TGWU Deputy General Secretary Jack Adams, involve sacked men investing a portion of their severance pay out from Mersey Docks to form a new "labour supply unit" which would provide dock employment in all areas of the port on a non-profit basis. The stewards expect that such a company, to be set up through tripartite talks between the union, Mersey Docks, and shippers, could generate a wide basis of financial, legal, and business support.

Stewards told the media they would insist on the removal of Drake International and its scab workforce recruited to replace sacked dockers in Seaforth Container Terminal. Any acceptable proposal would have to ensure security of pensions, holiday and sick pay as well as permanent employment for all sacked dockers who wish to return to the industry, recruitment and training, and an end to casual labour, stewards insisted.

On that basis, the idea has support from rank and file dockers who on Friday authorised their stewards to pursue the proposals with Mersey Docks.

Before the press conference, the stewards' Chairman Jim Nolan talked with Terry Malone of the Port Users Committee on BBC Radio Merseyside. Malone, who frequently speaks in place of Mersey Docks, acknowledged that the Port was not functioning normally in the general cargo areas and appeared sympathetic to the proposal.

MDHC themselves were caught on the hop. By the afternoon, however, the dock company had told the BBC that while they were not opposed to a workers-cooperative running as a "proper business", the stewards' current proposal was unacceptable as Drakes had proved a loyal workforce providing "excellent service" and would not be dismissed after "improving productivity in the Container Terminal by 50%" and "restoring customer confidence" that had, MDHC declared, ebbed away just before September 1995.

In a live interview at 6:30 pm, steward Mike Carden dismissed claims of Drake's productivity, recalling that just before sacking the men Mersey Docks termed Liverpool dockers "the best in Europe". Speaking alongside Carden, Terry Malone now regretted the plan was not "as positive as it had appeared", and declared Drake should stay. Carden regretted the shift in Malone's position, suggesting he had been whipped into line by MDHC.

The stewards' move clearly pre-empted a widely predicted decision by TGWU General Secretary Bill Morris to impose a secret ballot on the current "ultimate offer", a demand echoed by the company on Friday and rejected at the mass meeting once again.

Industrial pressure is set to mount as dockers seek to join forces with 1300 Ford workers facing dismissal at Halewood (Liverpool) as production of the new Escort is to be limited to Valencia (Spain) and Saarlouis (Germany). Hundreds of other redundancies at Gallaghers and Kodak on Merseyside have also just been declared.

Beyond the tactical questions, the labour supply proposals are fraught with dangers should they ever come to pass. Readers with experience of joint union-management "co-operatives" may wish to respond directly to the stewards or via LabourNet. We will pass email messages on to them.