HULL DOCKERS! VICTORY from a Hull correspondent
On April 27th 11 Hull Dockers discharged packaged timber at 8d each per standard, This price represented a victory in the fight by the Hull dockers against the speed-up in the docks (see Week noe 14 for details of this struggle), It was only achieved after the docks had been brought to a standstill no less than 3 times in early February. Throughout all the negotiations, the dockers held out for a team of eleven men and a price of 8a per standard. The employers would not accept this and made a counteroffer which they described as being final.
The dockerw retaliated by imposing an unofficial overtime ban - night work, too, was stopped. Meetings were held each Saturday morning to endorse these noves, These meetings lasted until late in March and were attended by 20C -360 dockers each time, The break in the employers! front came when the Ncrwegian motor vessel Older, which was being unloaded at London was sent to Hull, where in accordance with an instruction from the National Joint Council it was staffed with 11 men. It is estimated that packaged timber (timber grouped according to length and bound with wire) can be discharged twice the speed of loose timber,