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The Pentonville Five were five shop stewards who were imprisoned in July 1972 by the National Industrial Relations Court for refusing to obey a court order to stop picketing a container depot in East London. Their arrest and imprisonment led to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) calling a general strike.
The events took place against the background of a clash between the Conservative government of Edward Heath and the trade union movement, involving the first national miners’ strike in Britain since 1926, with mass picketing, and clashes between police and workers.
Dockers at the Chobham Farm container depot, Temple Mills, Newham, were unofficially striking and picketing the site.
The National Industrial Relations Court (NIRC) had issued an injunction barring further picketing, following an application by Midland Cold Storage Company. [1]
Picketing continued despite the injunction. Five shop stewards were named by private investigators for the cold storage company – Conny Clancy, Tony Merrick, Bernie Steer, Vic Turner and Derek Watkins. Warrants were issued by the court for their arrest for contempt of court, and they were imprisoned on 21 July 1972.
Following their arrest, a rolling series of strikes began to cause work stoppages until there was virtually an unofficial national strike.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) then called for an official national strike on 31 July, demanding the release of the five shop stewards.
Thousands of striking workers marched through North London to Pentonville Prison.
The "Five" were released within a week of their arrest when the Official Solicitor Norman Turner, on receipt of the papers, successfully applied to the Court of Appeal. The Official Solicitor is a court official who represents those who are unable to represent their own interests. For this case, he was assisted in the Court of Appeal by barrister John Vinelott, later a High Court judge. The Official Solicitor was successful in his application to overturn the arrest warrants, on the grounds that the National Industrial Relations Court had insufficient grounds to deprive them of their liberty and that the evidence of the private investigators was insufficient. [2]
Vic Turner continued to work in the docks, transferring from the Royal Docks to Tilbury. However he left the docks under the voluntary redundancy scheme and started working for Newham London Borough Council. He was then elected a councillor and served for many years before being elected mayor. During this period he was also presented with the Transport and General Union Gold Medal for his work for the union.
The radical film group Cinema Action made a documentary called Arise Ye Workers [9] during the struggle, which was released in 1973. The film won the Silver Dove at the Leipzig Film Festival and was screened by the jailed dockers on the anniversary of their release from jail.
The 1926 general strike in the United Kingdom was a general strike that lasted nine days, from 4 to 12 May 1926. It was called by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in an unsuccessful attempt to force the British government to act to prevent wage reductions and worsening conditions for 1.2 million locked-out coal miners. Some 1.7 million workers went out, especially in transport and heavy industry. The government was well prepared, and enlisted middle class volunteers to maintain essential services. There was little violence and the TUC gave up in defeat.
The Winter of Discontent was the period between November 1978 and February 1979 in the United Kingdom characterised by widespread strikes by private, and later public, sector trade unions demanding pay rises greater than the limits Prime Minister James Callaghan and his Labour Party government had been imposing, against Trades Union Congress (TUC) opposition, to control inflation. Some of these industrial disputes caused great public inconvenience, exacerbated by the coldest winter in 16 years, in which severe storms isolated many remote areas of the country.
The National Transport Workers' Federation (NTWF) was an association of British trade unions. It was formed in 1910 to co-ordinate the activities of various organisations catering for dockers, seamen, tramwaymen and road transport workers.
Picketing is a form of protest in which people congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place. Often, this is done in an attempt to dissuade others from going in, but it can also be done to draw public attention to a cause. Picketers normally endeavor to be non-violent. It can have a number of aims, but is generally to put pressure on the party targeted to meet particular demands or cease operations. This pressure is achieved by harming the business through loss of customers and negative publicity, or by discouraging or preventing workers or customers from entering the site and thereby preventing the business from operating normally.
The Office of the Official Solicitor is a part of the Ministry of Justice of the Government of the United Kingdom. The Official Solicitor acts for people who, because they lack mental capacity and cannot properly manage their own affairs, are unable to represent themselves and no other suitable person or agency is able or willing to act. The Official Solicitor acts for England & Wales only, as Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate legal systems and judiciaries.
The Industrial Relations Act 1971 (c.72) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, since repealed. It was based on proposals outlined in the governing Conservative Party's manifesto for the 1970 general election. The goal was to stabilize industrial relations by forcing concentration of bargaining power and responsibility in the formal union leadership, using the courts. The act was intensely opposed by unions, and helped undermine the government of Edward Heath. It was repealed by the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974 when the Labour Party returned to government.
The Grunwick dispute was a British industrial dispute involving trade union recognition at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in Chapter Road, Dollis Hill in the London suburb of Willesden, that led to a two-year strike between 1976 and 1978.
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.
The National Industrial Relations Court (NIRC) was established on 1 December 1971 under Section 99 of the Industrial Relations Act 1971. The NIRC was created by the Conservative government of Ted Heath as a way to limit the power of trades union in the United Kingdom. It was empowered to grant injunctions as necessary to prevent injurious strikes and also to settle a variety of labour disputes. It also heard appeals from the Industrial tribunals. Unusually, its jurisdiction extended throughout the UK, making no distinction between England and Wales or Scotland.
Sir John Evelyn Vincent Vinelott was a leading barrister at the Chancery bar and an English High Court judge in the Chancery Division from 1978 to 1994.
Des Warren was a British construction worker, trade union activist and – with Ricky Tomlinson – one of the Shrewsbury Two imprisoned for "conspiracy to intimidate" whilst picketing in Shropshire in 1972. His autobiography, The Key To My Cell, put forward his version of events, and what he considered "the real conspiracy" — that the arrests were part of a plan to intimidate the trade union movement.
The Battle of Ballantyne Pier occurred in Ballantyne Pier during a docker's strike in Vancouver, British Columbia, in June 1935.
The Charleston Five are five men - Kenneth Jefferson, Rick Simmons, Peter Washington, Elijah Ford, and Jason Edgerton - who were brought up on felony charges of conspiracy to incite a riot on January 19, 2000 in Charleston, South Carolina.
Dockers is a 1999 British feature-length television drama produced for Channel 4 about the struggles of a small group of Liverpool dockers who were sacked and subsequently spent nearly 2 and a half years picketing during the Liverpool Dockers' Strike of 1995 to 1998.
The Belfast Dock strike or Belfast lockout took place in Belfast, Ireland from 26 April to 28 August 1907. The strike was called by Liverpool-born trade union leader James Larkin who had successfully organised the dock workers to join the National Union of Dock Labourers (NUDL). The dockers, both Protestant and Catholic, had gone on strike after their demand for union recognition was refused. They were soon joined by carters, shipyard workers, sailors, firemen, boilermakers, coal heavers, transport workers, and women from the city's largest tobacco factory. Most of the dock labourers were employed by powerful tobacco magnate Thomas Gallaher, chairman of the Belfast Steamship Company and owner of Gallaher's Tobacco Factory.
The 1913 Sligo Dock strike in the port of Sligo in northwest Ireland was a labour dispute lasting 56 days from 8 March to 6 May 1913. During the strike, there were numerous clashes on the docks and riots in the town, resulting in one fatality. Occurring six months earlier than the Dublin Lockout, it was regarded as a precursor to that action and a successful application of the Irish Transport & General Workers Union’s strategy for workers rights by James Larkin and James Connolly. It resulted in victory for the workers. James Larkin considered the 1913 victory in Sligo to be a major achievement of the ITGWU.
The history of trade unions in the United Kingdom covers British trade union organisation, activity, ideas, politics, and impact, from the early 19th century to the present.
Walter Greendale was a British trade unionist and politician.
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.
