Liverpool dockers' strike

The Liverpool Dockers' Strike lasted for twenty-eight months between 1995 and 1998 in Liverpool, England. Although referred to as a strike, it was strictly a dispute as the employers, Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC), sacked the dockers.

History

The dockers refused to cross a picket line set up in support of a group of fellow dockers working for Torside on 29 September 1995, and were then sacked by their employers.[1] 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 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 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.[2] The T-shirt was worn by many celebrities, most famously by Robbie Fowler during a goal celebration while playing for Liverpool.[3]

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

After the dispute, some of the dockers bought the Casa Bar on Hope Street in Liverpool city centre.[4]

British director Ken Loach made a documentary about the strike, The Flickering Flame, in 1996.[5]

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.

Chumbawamba song "One by One" obliquely references the strikes, being released on the album Tubthumping in 1998.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Liverpool docks dispute 20 years on: Part One - How dockers paid with their jobs for refusing to cross a picket line". Liverpool Echo. 20 September 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  2. ↑ Image of CK t-shirt
  3. ↑ "Football: Fowler fined for show of support". The Independent. 28 March 1997. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  4. ↑ Liverpool Daily Post bar review
  5. ↑ Milne, Seumas (19 December 1996). "TV review: Loach keeps the fires burning". The Guardian. Manchester. p. 2.

Further reading

  • 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.
  • "The World is our picket line". flag.blackened.net. Archived from the original on 2006-07-21.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.