Associated British Ports are seeking a meeting with Cardiff police after 120 pickets closed the port for nearly two hours from 6 a.m.Tuesday morning. Hundreds of wagons queued up as tailbacks stretched several miles to the motorway after pickets including 70 sacked Liverpool dockers occupied a public highway.
Despite management complaints that the flying picket was illegal, police officers remained low-key, insisting their sole concern was to avoid violence and ensure the flow of motorway traffic.
ABP Port Manager Rob Gravestock described the action as "a huge inconvenience for thousands caught up in the traffic chaos, including vehicles arriving to the port. This is the second time this month we have been affected, and the police must make contingency plans as protesters have said they will return."
Dockers travelled overnight for a rendezvous with local supporters of their campaign against Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, whose subsidiary Coastal Container Line has 5 sailings per week linking Cardiff to Dublin and Belfast.
Mr. Gravestock insisted that while some deliveries were delayed, there were "no delays to ships". He confirmed that the regular Coastal vessel "Pellworm" was in port along with the "Caribbean Bulker", "Kaaksburg", "Bettina", and "Petro Severn".
Coastal's Cardiff office declined to comment but their Dublin Operations Director John Forrester claimed there were no Coastal vessels in Cardiff during the picket and the "Pellworm" would not arrive until 19:30.
Last month the "Coastal Bay" was delayed 8 hours in Dublin after Liverpool men picketted the port. Shop steward Bobby Morton states "local hauliers in Liverpool are upset at Coastal's inability to guarantee delivery schedules".
While the Port Manager told pickets "You've done yourself no good by this type of demonstration," most lorry drivers queueing in Cardiff were supportive. "They're good lads. I want to see them win," said John Williams, a long distance lorry driver from the Cynon Valley. "I used to drive into the Grain Terminal at Liverpool Docks and the Liverpool Dockers were great."
"We've done the job on the Port of Liverpool," said Terry Teague, Port Steward, "although obviously, we still do a daily picket. Now, though, we've decided to move on to other interests of the Dock Company. We've already closed Dublin and Sheerness, and this type of of guerilla action will continue to target any port trading with Mersey Docks."
"Our aim," said Mariam Kamish, Secretary of the Dockers Support Group in South Wales, "is to make it clear that if Mersey Docks and Harbour Co. want to get back to normal work, then they're going to have to accept the locked out Liverpool Dockers back to work as well."
LabourNet report by Greg Dropkin
