16.11.1995

Merseyside strike begins to bite

NEWS FROM both the Liverpool dock strike and the firefighters’ dispute signals continued determination to win. The dock workers are claiming a success in the failure of management to reopen the main container route across the Atlantic. Firefighters are following up several strikes this week with another planned for Monday and more set to follow. This Monday saw army crews stretched by a major fire that destroyed an oil warehouse as they helplessly poured in water from the outside.

The Scandinavian-based ACL container firm has diverted the Atlantic Conveyor from Seaforth to Thamesport. This is the result of support from the International Longshoremen’s Association in the USA. The ILA not only confirms its support for the Liverpool dockers but has sent $5,000 as a donation to the strikers.

The Merseyside Fire Authority launched a propaganda offensive to try and break the Fire Brigades Union dispute. It accused the FBU of callousness in targeting the days running up to Bonfire Night for strikes. The breakdown of talks was used as a pretext to mail all union members with an ‘offer’ that employers claimed the FBU refused to put to its members. The offer was no more than a re-presentation of the same proposals repeatedly rejected by the members.

The role of ‘new’ Labour in this dispute has gone from bad to worse. After the breakdown of talks with the fire authority George Howarth, the Labour spokesman for the fire service, offered himself as an ‘arbitrator’. Within days the arbitrator turned traitor, calling on the FBU to call off the strikes running up to November 5. This Tuesday Howarth met with FBU officials and Peter Dowd, the chair of the authority. This worrying development, described as ‘talks about talks’, resulted in nothing, but is the first time that brigade officials have not been included.

The dock dispute shows a firm grasp of the need for solidarity action. Appeals to the ILA in the United States were only part of a campaign for international support. The firefighters show an almost opposite strength. It is their insularity that allows them to defend 20 jobs so fiercely in a city that has seen thousands of redundancies. We need to combine this self-reliance with a measure of the dockers’ solidarity to forge a winning strategy in the current political and industrial climate.

Chris Jones