Close to 500 Liverpool dockworkers have been waging a heroic, two-year long struggle against the use of casual, part-time scab labour in the Port of Liverpool, England. In September 1995 the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company used their refusal to cross a picket line set up by other dockworkers as a pretext for firing them and employing a workforce made up of part-time, scab labour.
The struggle being waged by the Liverpool dockworkers has evolved into a global struggle between dockworkers and their bosses as dockworkers around the world have repeatedly staged international days of action in solidarity with their counterparts in Liverpool. Furthermore, these actions have given this struggle global significance insofar as it has also become a struggle against the implementation of lean production methods in the global transportation industry.
In recent months this heroic struggle by these fired dockworkers has inspired growing support and solidarity activity here in Canada. Ongoing solidarity actions by dockworkers in Halifax, St. John, Montreal and Vancouver have been complemented by actions carried out by local leaders and activists in unions like the CAW, CUPE and the Alberta Teachers Association. The Liverpool Dockers Solidarity Network was born of these actions.
The Liverpool Solidarity Network is now embarking on the most ambitious effort in this country to date in support of this historic struggle. We are organizing a two-week Canada-wide speaking tour featuring Valerie Bibby and Marie Eustace of the Liverpool dockworkers wives and partners' support group Women of the Waterfront (WoW). The purposes of this tour are to maximize Canadian labour support for the Liverpool dockworkers' struggle and to target Canadian Pacific whose subsidiary firm has continued to have vessels sent to the Port of Liverpool throughout this dispute.
The WoW Tour Schedule (tentative):
November 20 - Windsor, Ontario
November 21 - Ottawa, Ontario
November 22 - Sudbury, Ontario
November 23 - Oakville, Ontario
November 24 - Toronto, Ontario (OFL Convention)
November 25 - Guelph, Ontario
November 26 - Edmonton, Alberta
November 27 - Jasper, Alberta (Alberta Federation of Labour School)
November 28 - Calgary/Lethbridge, Alberta
November 29 - Duncan, B.C.
November 30 - Vancouver, B.C.
Persons wishing to obtain further information regarding the WoW Canada Tour are encouraged to contact:
St. Catharines Bruce Allen (905) 934-6233
Toronto Julia Barnett (416) 538-0146
Calgary Neil Fettes (403) 263-2963
Edmonton Eugene Plawiuk (403) 439-3595
Vancouver TJ Baker (604) 253-6147
Vancouver Island Lloy Wylie (250) 748-5725
For more information on the Liverpool Dockers Solidarity Network e-mail
praxis1871@aol.com or call one of the numbers listed above. For more info on the Liverpool campaign visit the Dockers' website at www.labournet.org.uk
