Five hundred dockers have been on strike and pixckering hard for seven wecks against being sacked by Mersey Docks & Harbour Company (MDHC) for refusing to cross a picket line.
The conflict began with at tempes to bring back the system of casual labour. Casualisation of labour is a major part of the capitalist restructurine of society. Workers in sectors as unrelated as banking, heavy industry and education are all suffering its CHECCIS Liverpool docks is one of the most profitable and suc- seyside. cessful ports in the UK, with profits in excess of £35 million, handling more cargo than its heyday in the 1950s.
Last year the MDHC imposed a work contract on dockers after issuing them with 90 days notice. They adthe total.
by Fred Leplat elections for UNISON's ised. General Secretary turned out to be a surprise for many people and revealed the union to se deeply polarised.
On a 23 per cent tumout. Rodney Bickerstaffe, current Associate General Secretary with Alan Jinkinson, took only 48% of the vote, polling 151.893 votes. Bickerstaffe was tne tavounte and nis sup porters. believed him to be so popular that he would romp home.
His nearest rival was Peter Hunter. A former Tory Party member who apparently has now applied to join the La. bour Party, Hunter's campaign was promoted through the Catholic Church.
His election address was and racist (no money for self-organised groups or internasolidarity). To everyone's surprise. Hunter ROI 95.4U2 VOICS 0r 29% 01 UNISON 2nd National Conference *Preparing for battles of 1996' Speakers Invited: Arthur §cargill, Hillingdon strikers SATURDAY DECEMBER 9 10am-4pm, Swathmore Centre, 4, Woodhouse Square, Leeds 3. Affiliation fee (S25) motions to CFDU c/o Paul Harris, 6 Beula View, Leeds 156 2IA vertised the jobs in the Liver- munity. pool Echo and interviewed 1800 unemployed from MerNot one of them was given the job. It was a disgraceful hoax to enforce new contracts The dockers fighting for reinstatement have won back- dundancies. ing from MPs, councillors Euro MPs and the local comThis vote reveals that there is a significant reactionary layer tat is as yer unorgan• The CFDU (the main left caucus in UNISON) candidate, Roger Bannister. obtained 58,052 votes or 18% This strong vote indicates that he was a very credible wide layer of UNISON activ. ists who have been disillusioned by the national the Labour leader. leadership's sell-out on compulsory privatisation and pay in health and local govern. Industrial action pressure off.
The main call by the CFDU for national campaigns including industrial action against Government attacks was seen by this layer nister's campaign). as the only way for UNISON to defend its memhers The SWP candidate.
of the Labour Party"Yunus Bashkh, came a distant fourth with 15139 votes or 5% of the total.The SWP shifted to the left.
the government, the employer and the union gave assurances that they would suffer no job losses or attacks on their union organisation. Nothing could have been further from the truth. property rights worth billions of pounds. The government has a 20 per cent stake in the company and was prepared to waive £112 million of debts in the 1989 strike. • MARCH: Saturday december 2, 10.30am Assemble at RC Cathedral, Hope Street, Two thousand Hall 12 noon marched through the city centre of September 7 and ten thousand on September 21. Davies, 19 Scorton Street, Since 1989 the govern- Liverpool Ló 4AS. Make ment has helped featherbed cheques out to: Merseyside the directors of the company. Dockers Shop Stewards Over £200 million was used Committee. to make the 1989 wave of reLiverpool Docks Shop StewTo get the Liverpool dock- ards Committee c/o TGWU. ers to agree to go back to work Islington Liverpool. must be sorely disappointed with this result, as they were confident of beating Roger The polarisation of the undiately posed Bickerstaff with a dilemma. He was let No walk-over:Bickerstaffe down by the "soft left" in the ship to organise national camunion who did not campaign paigns including industrial hard for him. The "Blairite action in defence of these wing" of the union burcaucpolicies and here and now for racy sat on its hands as it did members jobs and conditions. not want to boost a critic of The CFDU can now be the In the short term, Bickier- focus for all those on the left who want to tum UNISON staffe cannot rely on this section of the union. He therefore into a fighting and campaignWing union. It is time for all on immediately made some conthe left, including the SWP cessions to the left to take the (who have been ambivalent about the CFDU), to join it He announced that he and turn it into a real broad would not take a pay increase and national left throughout from his current salary of the union one of the main points of Ban- Strategy He also stated that UNI- In the next year, the CFDU SON was not in the "pocket will have to provide a strategy However welcome these winning on pay in local govstatements are, they do not emment and health, opposing indicate that Bickerstaffe has the Tory Immigration Bill which will require many Nevertheless the left in the UNISON memhers to chock union, including the CFDU. nationality status, and stopwill need to continue to sup- ping the continuing privatisaport Rodney Bickerstaffe against Tony Blair when he is services speaking up for UNISON's the Crou conterence on policies such as the minimum December 9 in Leeds (sec wage or against privatisation. box) will be the first opportuUnity to bring the left together campaign to force Bicker- since the election and to prestaffe and the national leader- pare a way forward.