DOCKERS AND CASUALISATION -
Why did the dockers reject the 25 000 ?
Many people will be aware that some dockers in this dispute have rejected
an offer
of 25 000 to 'sell' their jobs. You may not be aware however that this
offer is
not available to all those dockers involved in this dispute; but in any
case you
are probably wondering why anyone would reject a lump sum like that. Apart
from the fact that
these days 25 000 will go nowhere and besides, before this dispute, many
dockers
had already rejected a more 'generous' offer, the dockers have a more
compelling
reason for saying NO. You should give serious thought to their argument.
Throughout this dispute dockers, their wives, partners and supporters have
argued
that this dispute centres on one issue - CASUALISATION. Now many people
reading this
will know what this means, 'flexible working', short term contracts,
constant insecurity
caused by 'privatisation' or competitive tendering or simply the 'need to
remain internationally
competitive'. We have all been told that there is no alternative, that
somehow it
is all pre-ordained. Dock workers themselves have fallen victim to this
trend in common with millions of other workers in this country. If you have
read some of
the letters and speeches of the 'Women of the Waterfront
' you will be aware of the constant call outs, disruption to family life
and the tiredness
and stress they cause. All this is the real cost of the continuing drive by
the bosses,
government and the political parties to make this country the 'enterprise
centre of Europe.'
In the past dockers have had a tradition of mutual aid and collective
struggle through
which they have tried to blunt some of the effects of this. When in
response to an
attack on Torside dockers, others employed by MDHC or Nelson refused to
cross the
Torside men's picket line, they were attempting to preserve their
collective organisation.
A union or collective organisation in this sense is nothing without the
right to
picket - which of course is now illegal
in this country. So now we have the real reason for this dispute - it is
an attempt
to destroy and root out of the docks any last remnant of collective
organisation
and solidarity, so that conditions and wages can be further driven down to
make the
port 'competitive'.
And this pressure is never ending. One of the most insidious changes of the
last few
years has been the pressure for continuous improvement or kaizen
as the Japanese call it. In the past once a rate was agreed for a
particular job,
workers would be left to get on with it. Today this is no longer the case,
management
continually want more for less. Your best is never good enough.
Why this is so would take longer than we have space for in this article,
but it is
to do with another '-isation' - that is GLOBALISATION . As this dispute
develops
we are going to hear and more about this word and what it means. Those of
you who
have been following this dispute since September will know that in
attempting, as they saw
it to dispose of the last remnant of the 'old way' - the MDHC, the
Government, the
Liverpool Echo and so on, have badly miscalculated. Instead this remnant
has transformed
itself, risen to this new challenge and shown how collectively IT IS
POSSIBLE to resist.
We can mobilise ourselves, we don't have to suffer in isolation.
How have the dockers done this ? By taking this struggle into their own
hands, by
understanding the reality they were facing and not allowing the union to
isolate
them as has happened in the past, by sending delegates to ports all over
the world
to ask for practical solidarity. Above all by organising an international
conference of port
workers to see if we can work out a co-ordinated international approach to
the problem
of casualisation.
We live now in a world that is far more international than it used to be,
companies
think nothing of shipping goods round the world if it makes money,
developments in
information technology makes services just as footloose - which is why
world trade
is growing three times faster than world production. This globalisation of
the economy
means that now, we, the working class can also 'globalise' our struggle and
no laws
in any one nation state can stop us. And if dock workers can use
international pressure
to strengthen their collective organisation, why not Ford workers or
Vauxhalls' [GM]?
All this means we can begin to fight back and in the process find real
answers to
the problems that confront us.
So remember - it isn't about th money and you can't avoid the consequences
by keeping
your head down and hoping that you'll be all right. There aren't any
individual solutions
any more.
We need solutions at the level of society itself. You won't be all right if
you just
keep your head down - casualisation affects everybody, blue collar, white
collar,
working class, middle class. We can successfully resist, BUT only by using
the only
weapons at our disposal - our numbers and our ability to understand and
organise ourselves.
The dockers are showing us the way.
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