Humberside Voice addresses all dock workers

'Mr Ray Gunter is trying to change the Dock Labour Scheme to give the employers more power over dockers and to force through the proposals of the Devlin Report, although he must know that the vast majority of dockers oppose this kind of change, The proposed changes are printed in a Government leaflet called 'The Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) (Amendment) Order, 1966.! It was issued an March26th, and all objections have to be sent to the Minister by May 6th, The leaflet is written in confusing, legal language, which is extremely difficult to piece together. The T.& G.W.U. supplied only a handful of copies for the whole of Hull. In other words, they don't want to give us decent time to object, they don't want us to understand too clearly what they are after, and they don't want the amendments to get around too much. After all, when they do want us to read something, they supply a straightforward leaflet for every docker in the country. The Union said, when the Devlin Report was published:'The Dockers will have the right to accept or reject at the end of the road's; 'There will be a great campaign of membership consultationg' 'Those who refuse to.,.. take part in the democratic decisions that have to be taken, do themselves an injustice and are the enemies of their fellow workers,' If the cap fits, the T & @ leaders and the Government had better wear it. The amendments say- 1. That instead of ‘pool men', there will be 'temporarily unattached workers! i.e., there will still be a pool, but they will be the ‘left overs! after the employers have had they pick. : 2. A docker who refuses to accept allocation to a particular employer may be removed from the register, The employers can pick and choose, but not the dockers. 56 Permanent workers can be dismissed to the pool by their employers. 4. Permanent workers can be suspended by their employers for up to five days. It is quite clear then, that while most dockers are to get permanent employment, they get it at the cost of much greater employers' power, and a 'pool' is still to be kept.... In Hull, already, the Employers have written to the Union asking that the 35% limit on perms should be lifted now. They aim to start their recruitment of the men they want, even before the amendments come into force scees Why does the T & G support these amendments, when they have given full support for the nationalisation of the industry? Why does the Government force these amendments when they have promised Nationalisation, an end to private stevedoring firms, and an extension of the workers' say in the industry?..... Here is the Labour Party election pledgesg- 'We shall reorganise and modernise the nation's ports on the basis of a strong National Ports Authority, and Publicly owned regional Ports Authorities. Within the ports, we shall end inefficiencies and delays in cargo handling and help cure the chaos of the casual system, by making each Port Authority ultimately responsible for all Port Installations within its area, including stevedoring, and by extending the present valuable experience of joint participation,! Reject the amendments. Demand the carrying out of Labour’ election pledge now, The Union and the Labour Party cannot ride twd horses at once and play fast and loose with the dockers, Support the campaign against the amendments, already begun in London, Press through the branches, in every way, for the ‘Voice! Charter,