Liverpool dockers' strike

The Liverpool Dockers' Strike lasted from 1995 to 1998.

Although referred to as a strike it was strictly a dispute because the employers, the MDHC (Mersey Docks and Harbour Company) had actually used the opportunity to sack the dockers who were caught up in a separate dispute.

History

The Liverpool dockers refused to cross a picket line set up in support of a group of fellow dockers working for Torside. That was on 29 September 1995, and they were sacked by their employers. Some dockers were offered new contracts but all contracts were subject to alteration by the MDHC, so the dispute began. Over the next two and a half years the dockers waged a very high profile public campaign for their reinstatement, and allied themselves with dockers worldwide and support groups such as Reclaim the Streets. The strike failed in its declared objectives, but was very successful in providing a modern example of strong social movement unionism in the United Kingdom. A t-shirt was designed to show support for the dockers incorporating the Calvin Klein 'CK' into the word docker.^[1] The t-shirt was worn by many celebrities but most famously by Robbie Fowler during a goal celebration while playing for Liverpool F.C..

The dispute went on to be one of the longest in British industrial relations history. It was in February 1998 that the dockers finally accepted a settlement.

After the dispute some of the dockers bought the Casa Bar on Hope St. in Liverpool town centre.^[2]

In popular culture

British director Ken Loach made a documentary about the strike, The Flickering Flame, in 1996.^[3]

A group of sacked dockers themselves wrote the script for a film about their experiences, Dockers, with the help of well-known Liverpool writer Jimmy McGovern and the author Irvine Welsh, which was broadcast by Channel 4 in 1999.

Resources

• The Dockers, article in Hidden Agendas (pages 334-358) by John Pilger, Vintage 1998.
• Another World is Possible: How the Liverpool Dockers Launched a Global Movement, Pauline Bradley and Chris Knight. Published by the Radical Anthropology Group, 2004. Pamphlet by two members of the London Support Group.
• http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/ws/liver49.html

See also

• Social Movement Unionism
• Reclaim the Streets
• Transport & General Workers' Union (T&G)
• Bill Morris
• United Socialist Party (UK)

External links

• The Liverpool 47
• The Mersey Docks Dispute by Dave Graham
• The Liverpool Dockers - 2 years fighting
• Photographs of the dispute by Liverpool photographer Dave Sinclair

References