Back to Labour Values index
Back to Dock Strike index
Back to article index
Previous
CHOBHAM FARM
The case of the dockers picketing the Chobham Farm container depot [1] to demand the jobs of the workers already employed is even more instructive. The dispute arose out of the dockers' general demand for the right of dock labour only to be employed in the stuffing and stripping of containers within a 30 mile radius of ports employing registered dock labour.
[1] The container depot was on the site in East London now occupied by the Olympic Park.
When the unofficial shop stewards committee for the London docks heard about Chobham Farm, they put a picket round it. "Tony Churchman, their (container workers) shop steward, went to the depot gates when the first pickets appeared to ask his union brothers in what way he could help them. He was, he says, told in no uncertain terms. Churchman, a likeable if slightly puzzled East Ender of 37, had only been a shop steward since last June, and it was his baptism of fire. He went next door to the LIFT container depot, and asked the LIFT stewards for advice. Together, they got out a leaflet giving the containermen's side of the case, ..." (Sunday Times, 18.6.72). The container-men then contacted their TGWU regional officer (both dockers and containermen are in different occupational divisions of the TGWU, though some dockers are in an older craft union, the NASD). They were told that the pickets were unofficial and therefore there was nothing the union could do about it. The containermen next heard that a formula had been agreed between their firm and the TGWU which involved the loss of their jobs. Having received no help from the union they took legal advice as to how to keep their jobs. A meeting followed between the Union officials for the docks, the dockers shop stewards, the containermens' shop stewards and the employers. The dockers refused to accept anything less than a closed shop: they would regard working alongside containermen as working with scabs. When the containermens' shop stewards asked the dockers what they would do if, having ousted the containermen, dockers working inside Chobham Farm were confronted with pickets of ex-containermen, the dockers replied, that they would of course not cross the picket line. The meeting ended in impasse and the dockers' pickets continued.
After the meeting, the containermen collected money from their own and other container depots from workers and took their case to the National Industrial Relations Court arguing that the pickets had committed an Unfair Industrial Practice by their actions in causing breach of contract (the loss of jobs). The National Industrial Relations Court upheld their case and issued injunctions ordering the three named dockers to cease picketing, which they did not; and so the National Industrial Relations Court ordered them to appear in court to explain themselves, which they did not. Sir John Donaldson said, "Either we live by the rule of law and all the law or we abandon the way of life which we have known for centuries. It is a simple choice, but one of profound significance." (FT,15.6.72) He gave them one more day to appear, this time in the Appeal Court or else suffer arrest for contempt.
The unofficial docks shop steward committee called a nationwide dock strike to protest against the expected arrests to continue until all court proceedings had been dropped. Jack Jones "urged the Department of Employment to intervene and try to persuade the court to delay action till the TUC and the unions concerned had tried to solve the industrial problem." ( FT, 16.6.72) But the Department of Employment pointed out that the law was independent of the Government and they were in fact powerless. At this point the event occurred which H. Wilson afterwards described as something out of Gilbert and Sullivan and about which the Sunday Times commented: "Inquiry does not support the idea of an Establishment conspiracy to avoid confrontation with the working class. There are some astonishing moments in the narrative - such as the convenient appearance of Peter Pain, QC, a prominent union lawyer, in the offices of the Official Solicitor just at the moment when that official's mind turned against the NlRC. But in the end it can be accepted that everyone acted independently." (18.6.72) The procedure used to get the three men off the hook was traditional - the difference in the use of the Official Solicitor this time and all other times in legal history is that he acted for the 'contemnors' before they had been imprisoned instead of after. Definitely an innovation, but not one 'contrary to the spirit of the law'. The dockers reaction to not being imprisoned was one of intense disappointment. At Chobham Farm, where a large crowd had gathered to watch the expected arrests, one container worker had to be smuggled out by police because the Evening Standard had incorrectly quoted him as saying that he hoped the dockers would get ten years. (In fact, from beginning to end, the containermen had been exceptionally clear that they had nothing against their fellow trade unionists and were dismayed to think of them going to prison. But they had no choice but to defend their jobs.) The dispute was formally settled on 22nd June when after meetings between both sections of the TGWU, NASD (National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers) and the employer, it was agreed that the existing container workers would be kept on but on a 'carried' basis until business picked up and that registered dock labour would be employed at dock rates for all handling work. It was not revealed whether the container workers would be paid docks wages (The Chobham container workers get £0.75 an hour, the dockers £1.24).
The ruling class acted to settle the struggle between sections of the working class by making concessions to both: by granting the dockers the right to work at jobs already held by others and by agreeing to insulate those others from the effects of the dockers' victory by not letting them go back onto the labour market.