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RETURN TO WORK
The official dock strike ended after three weeks. On l6th August the dockers' delegate conference voted by 53 to 30 to recommend a return to work on Monday 21 August on the basis of the further concessions won by the Jones-Aldington Committee in the 3 weeks of strike action. On 23 August most of the 42,000 dockers were back at work, having voted to accept the conference's decision. The unofficial national ports shop stewards committee rejected the further concessions at a meeting on the l6th August and called for a continuation of the strike: "The committee was determined the problem should be solved 'once and for all' and maintained that this could only be done by way of guarantees on the stewards' four points - an end to the surplus labour pool; no compulsory redundancies; all 'stuffing and stripping' of containers to be carried out by registered dockers; and all ports be brought into the National Dock Labour scheme." (FT, 17.8.72.)
On 17th August, dockers at Tilbury, Southampton, Belfast, Port Talbot, Swansea, Greenock, Grangemouth, Leith, Newcastle, North and South Shields, Goole, Yarmouth, Ipswick, Weymouth, and Felixstowe voted to return to work. The dockers at Liverpool voted to remain on strike on 17th August; however, on 20th August, they "decided overwhelmingly" to return to work on the 21st "when they held a brief meeting at the Pier Head". "Similar decisions were taken by men at Preston yesterday and at Manchester and Glasgow on Saturday. The shock defeat of militant shop stewards in their Mull and London strongholds last Friday was obviously a decisive factor in the week-end meetings." (FT,21.8.72.)
Socialist Worker on 19th August denounced the decision of the delegate Conference which had occurred because "Jack Jones succeeded on Wednesday in persuading his union's dock delegate conference to call off the national dock strike." They revealed that a "secret survey" by the National Ports Council estimated that 12,000 dockers jobs would disappear in the next three years due to continued reorganisation and technical change and stated that the 200 jobs so far found by the Jones-Aldington Committee were "next to useless". They continued "Dockers cannot depend on their own leader, Jack Jones, to safeguard their jobs. He has presided over a rundown in the dock labour force by a third in recent years without taking any action until docks stewards forced his hand. The only way to stop jobs slaughter is to bring all docks, wharves and container bases in to the dock labour scheme, to ensure that all dock workers have the same wages and conditions that those in the main centres have won through long and bitter struggle. The Vesteys and the Hays Wharfs and the other multi-million pound concerns will say they cannot afford this. The answer to them should be a complete takeover of the docks by nationalisation under workers' control. The leaders of the Transport Workers Union have refused to put up any real fight for their members. They want them to accept a government inquiry - held by the very men who put the five dockers in jail ... Nothing better expresses the bankrupt politics of Jack Jones ... It is up to all trade unionists in all industries to back the dockers' fight for jobs, despite the Jones sell out. By fighting the run down of their industry, the dockers have pioneered a national fight against redundancy and the dole."
The Morning Star maintained its principles: "the dockers who are continuing the fight do so because they realise that if they don't get cast-iron guarantees of employment now, they will be at the mercy of employers who have never had the slightest compunction in treating them like cattle in the past." But it also allowed for the most likely event - a return to work: "No militant docker is under any illusion about the size of the job now before them. The conference decision has split the dockers, as it was intended to do. Maintaining unity in the large ports, and rebuilding it on a national basis in support of strike action is essential."
This article will examine the substance of the demands of the unofficial shop stewards committee, the effect of the Jones-Aldington report and the advice and explanations offered to the working class by SW and MS.