_ The attempt of the London 2ock Labour Board to suspend for one day 1,618 dockers and the men's retaliato-y threat to ban overtime, nightwork and piece= work, has rudely shattered the illusions engendered by the Devlin report that peaceful co-operation was on the agenda in dockland, The suspensions were imposed because the men had attended an unofficial meeting during working hours on July 2, At a stormy meeting outside the Royal Docks, last Thursday, the men voted to ban overtime, nightwork and piecework. The last measure is particularly serious in a port where 85% of the work is done on a piecework basis, Rejecting the advice of the Liaison Committee's chief spokeemen, Jack Dash, who argued that each suspension should be fought individually through the union officials, the men insisted on the ban. This meeting and the one next day where attempts by TGWU officials to get the ban squashed were contemptously dismissed, echoed a salutary warning to those who believe that rationalisation and re-organisation of the port industry can be carried out at the dockworkers! expense,
Dockers! determination to. resist the Dock Labour Board's arbitrary disciple inary measures, has obviously provoked some consternation in official circles, Minister of Labour, R. Gunter, a firm advocate of the Devlin recommendations, is anxious to move ahead towards their speedy implementation. A conflict in the ports over the burning issue of discipline and control would hardly assist his planse Those employers who are dependent on the docks for export, view with alarm any possibility of a dock strike. Most employers are prepared to suborde inate their present difficulties to the perspectives offered by the Devlin report. <A spokesman for the Confederation of British Industries, commenting on the ban said: "There is no single problem that more urgently requires Government action than that of the docks," Their money appears to be on Mr, Gunter.
Ever since its publication, the Devlin report has evoked a chorus of acclamation from apparently diverse sources. The employers' chief representative, Sir Andrew Crichton assures that the employers will "back it to the hilt." He will be "delighted if the Government does step in and force something through." Jack Jones of the TGWU considers it a "great opportunity” and like Gunter and Crichton welcomes the "idea of quick movement to get the Devlin findings implemented." The most important factor in this situation, the dockers themselves, have shown less enthusiasm. Their past experience of the port employers and their deeprooted suspicions of their own fuli-time union officals, whom even the report chided for being "too pro-employer" cautions them about welcoming a report which aims to strengthen employer-trade union relations.
Members of the National Amalgamted Stevedores and Dockers Union = the "Blue union" - are unmoved by the Committee's lament that their general secretary, Dick Barret has too little power and is only a "voice" of the union, Their union's constitution compels its leaders to report back to mass meetings all important decisions for ratification or rejection. The Devlin report wants to end this and involve the "Blue union" leatters in agreements, irrespective of rank and file opinion, The bait of “limited recognition" dangled at the Ministry of Labour meeting on August 10, is clearly conditional upon the union removing this right from its membership.
The report envisages a streamlined industry, based upon 50 "groups" or "consortiums" of employers in the five main ports, as opposed to the present total of 713. It seeks a modernised industry, with fewer but bigger employers, increased mechanisation, a reduced labour force, reduced working gangs and the introduction of decasualisation. It was horrified to learn that the docker had "no sense that his working hours belonged to any particular employer."
Devlin report continued/
No one would deny that the docks suffer from an excess of private firms,
that its equipment is outdated and its organisation inefficient. The labour
movement must seek to remedy this, not by strengthening its natural enemies,
the big employers, but by demanding nationalisation. To organise an industry
the co-operation of the workers is an essential pre-requisite, that can only
be fully realised by workers' control. Siding with a report that denounces
the advocates of nationalisation as “disruptive elements" and "wreckers"
weakens Labour's case and undermines the dockers' confidence in socialist
Measures.
The labour movement should renounce this report and use the present
situation in the docks to win support for socialist planning,
N.B. This article was written before news came through that the suspensions
had been lifted. This development does, however, confirm the main thesis of
the article and its corollary: namely, that only by militant struggle and a
determination not to give up any rights can the dockers hope to maintain and
improve their position,
ANNOUNCEMENT
The special issue of The Week devoted to a full
report of the Manchester conference on Workers!
Control contains three major articles on the docks.
These are:
Report on the Docks = by Ken Britton,
A Solution to the Docks Problem -a paper presented
by Dockworkers Voice; and
Workers Control on the Docks - the conclusion
of the dockworkers group
at the conference,
Other articles in the pamphlet include items on
ng policy, steel, workers control and labour,
CUCe
This pamphlet is available from 54, Park Rd.,
Lenton, Nottingham, price 9d post paid.