DOCK STRIKE ENDS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27495, 1 November 1954, Page 11

DOCK STRIKE ENDS

Workers Claim Victory fNJS. Press Association-Copvripht) | Rec. 10 P-m-) LONDON, October 30. Britain’s giant dock strike ended today, when 44 000 s ibilant dockers in eight key ports voted to return to 1 ; O rk on Monday, claiming they had won a I (jorious victory. About '^.’ 00 1 ?°r d . On d °ck«4 the first to agree to Jail g f the month-old strike, which has held up £200,000,000-worth exporte-and imports, stranded 358 ships and cut production ; , many factories. The stoppage, which threatened to plunge .the nation into I dustrial chaos, was the worst since the 1926 general strike. The London “back .to work” call was followed uu bv i rikers in- other paralysed ports. • J

4 fessages from Liverpool, ManchesSouthampton, Birkenhead, Garston, d Q and Rochester told the Ministry Labour and dock officials through- <| ißritain that the strike had finished, a j. midday it was all over. But the of this strike will be felt for a § g time. “We cannot entirely catch an a thing like this.” a London port - doyer complained. “Irreparable I sage has been done—schedules ’ sei cargoes possibly lost, damage | the flow of import and export trade.” I ■ London dockers danced and s aed when they heard that their pioyers had accepted most of their 1 Bands. About 1000 Liverpool | iers formed a procession a quar•f a mile long and marched tri- = akantly through the city with a : se escort. Overtime Claims | he strike revolved around one - |or point—the dockers’ claim that j rtime should be voluntary, not I S?Sestrikers will return to work 5 red that no-one will be punished refusing overtime. While final dei are being settled, overtime will be FSr Dick Barrett, secretary of i National Amalgamated Stevedores’ Dockers’ Union, which led the < te, urged the dockers to do all the

t ™ r J‘ me Possible to get the Port of London working normally again. „,2 h ®. l ‘J aotic copeestion of shipping ai< piled up goods m ports will take several weeks to clear. Enough Concessions Won Strike leaders easily convinced their followers today that they had won enough concessions to justify a return to work. At a London mass meeting only about 10 of the 5000 dockers prese,rc* opposed the back-to-work call. \oife strike began a month ago, when a handful of dockers stopped work over a meat-sorting dispute. It spread quickly and most men who joined it did so without the backing of their union—the Transport and General Workers’ Union. But the Stevedores* and Dockers* Union ordered their 7000 members out on official strike to force employers to open full-scale negotiations on all outstanding disputes, including that of overtime/ Later, the Lightermen’s Union ordered their 4500 London workers to join the strike and by this week-end more than 30,000 members of the Transport Union at eight ports were out in defiance of their, leaders. The second strike along the Thames of 8000 ship repairers is not affected by the end of the dockers’ strike. This strike, which began seven weeks ago, involves 15 unions. It is over a redundancy question.