Throughout the history of the Liverpool docks, known as Mersey Docks and Harbour Company, there have been numerous strike actions by dock workers, although some have been part of larger industrial action affecting other trades and union workers. The most lengthy and best remembered of contemporary times was the dispute during 1995-1998.
Some examples of industrial actions taken prior to the mid-20th century included the dock strike of 1890 and the 1911 Liverpool general transport strike.
A strike in late 1967 affected Liverpool and Birkenhead, though docks in and around London were also affected. The strike involved around 16,000 workers and caused interference with trade exports, with pay systems a core factor. [1] Just two years later in July 1969, dockers again struck with colleagues from Birkenhead, involving 11,000 men over a dispute regarding handling goods at an Aintree container base. [2] A few years later in 1972, Liverpool dockers joined in a national dock strike to safeguard jobs, protesting against redundancy plans from firms using cheaper casual labour. [3] The longest known dispute, which was technically not a strike as the workforce were all dismissed, was the Liverpool dockers' dispute (1995–98) that ended with settlement pay and a few job reinstatements.
A stevedore, also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes.
The Port of Felixstowe, in Felixstowe, Suffolk, is the United Kingdom's busiest container port, dealing with 48% of Britain's containerised trade. In 2017, it was ranked as 43rd busiest container port in the world and 8th in Europe, with a handled traffic of 3.85 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). In 2019 it was ranked the UKs 7th busiest port.
Joseph Havelock Wilson, commonly known as Havelock Wilson or J. Havelock Wilson, was a British trade union leader, Liberal Party politician, and campaigner for the rights of merchant seamen.
The Dublin lock-out was a major industrial dispute between approximately 20,000 workers and 300 employers that took place in Ireland's capital and largest city, Dublin. The dispute, lasting from 26 August 1913 to 18 January 1914, is often viewed as the most severe and significant industrial dispute in Irish history. Central to the dispute was the workers' right to unionise.
The London dock strike was an industrial dispute involving dock workers in the Port of London. It broke out on 14 August 1889, and resulted in victory for the 100,000 strikers and established strong trade unions amongst London dockers, one of which became the nationally important Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers' Union. The strike is widely considered a milestone in the development of the British labour movement, symbolising the growth of the New Unions of casual, unskilled and poorly paid workers, in contrast to the craft unions already in existence. The strike helped to draw attention to the problem of poverty in Victorian Britain and the dockers' cause attracted considerable public sympathy.
The Emergency Powers Act 1920 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that gave the Sovereign power, in certain circumstances, to declare a state of emergency by proclamation. The Act also authorised emergency regulations to be issued by Order in Council.
The Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union (FSPDU) was an Australian trade union which existed between 1900 and 1993. It represented labourers in the shipbuilding industry, covering "mostly work associated with chipping, painting, scrubbing [and] cleaning [ships], working in every size of tanks, cleaning boilers, docking and undocking vessels, and rigging work".
The 1890 Southampton Dock strike took place in Southampton, England, September, 1890.
New unionism is a term used to describe moves to broaden the trade union agenda. It has been used twice in the history of the labor movement. Ben Tillett was a prominent leader of the London Dock strike of 1889. He formed the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Laborers' Union in 1889, which had support from skilled workers. Its 30,000 members won an advance in wages and working conditions.
The Liverpool Dockers' dispute was a lengthy dispute between dockers, their employers Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC) and Torside Ltd, which lasted for twenty-eight months between 1995 and 1998 in Liverpool, England. Although considered a strike, it was strictly a lockout as the employers, Mersey Docks, sacked the dockers for breach of contract when they refused to cross a picket line set up by their sacked Torside Limited colleagues. Initially, five Torside workers were dismissed following a dispute regarding overtime pay, who in turn formed a picket line that other dockers refused to cross in solidarity.
Jack O'Brien Dash was a British communist and trade union leader, famous for his role in London dock strikes.
The National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers (NASD), sometimes referred to as the National Amalgamated Stevedores' and Dockers' Society, was a trade union in the United Kingdom.
The docks strike of 1970 was a major industrial action by dockers in the United Kingdom that raised fears of food shortages and led to a proclamation of a state of emergency by Queen Elizabeth II.
The 1972 UK miners' strike was a major dispute over pay between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Conservative Edward Heath government of the United Kingdom. Miners' wages had not kept pace with those of other industrial workers since 1960. The strike began on 9 January 1972 and ended on 28 February 1972, when the miners returned to work. The strike was called by the National Executive Committee of the NUM and ended when the miners accepted an improved pay offer in a ballot. It was the first time since 1926 that British miners had been on official strike, but there had been a widespread unofficial strike in 1969.
The 2013 Hong Kong dock strike was a 40-day labour strike at the Kwai Tsing Container Terminal. It was called by the Union of Hong Kong Dockers (UHKD), an affiliate of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) on 28 March 2013, against contracting companies to whom workforce management had been out-sourced by the Hongkong International Terminals Ltd. (HIT), subsidiary of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPHT), which is in turn owned by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (HWL), flagship company of Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong's richest man. The strike workers demanded better pay and working conditions. The strike ended on 6 May 2013 when the strikers accepted the offer of 9.8% pay rise. It was the longest running industrial action in Hong Kong in years. Public support and media attention on the strike were unprecedented in the city's history. Some observers marked this as the rejuvenation of political engagement.
The Leith dockers strike of 1913 was a strike of the dockers of Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland, from 26 June to 14 August 1913. The Dockers were part of the National Union of Dock Labourers (NUDL) union. The strike is said to have brought Leith to a standstill.
Brian Gerald Nicholson was a British trade unionist.
The Housing Act 1969 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that provided grants to home owners and landlords to improve the quality of their housing and to help finance local authorities to improve the quality of housing stock under their control.
The 2022–2023 United Kingdom railway strikes are an ongoing industrial dispute in the United Kingdom that has seen the largest instance of industrial action in the country since 1989. It commenced on 21 June after members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) walked out over wages and planned changes to working practices – involving the removal of guards from trains, the reduction in the number of open ticket offices, and an increase in the age at which people could claim the young persons and senior citizen card – and the threat of redundancies. The strike followed the collapse of discussions between the RMT and several rail companies, and involved around 40,000 rail workers from Network Rail and 13 train operators; they were also joined by staff from London Underground who staged a 24-hour strike on 21 June. Disruption affected the entire railway network of Great Britain, with staff of the main train operators in Scotland and Wales, who were not part of the strike, also disrupted as the trains were unable to operate on Network Rail infrastructure. The strike did not impact Northern Ireland.
Since May–June 2022, a series of labour strikes and industrial disputes have occurred in various industries of the United Kingdom's economy as workers walked out over pay and conditions. The strikes took place with rising inflation, and demands for pay increases that would keep pace with this inflation.