Documents Taylor, Greig 2 results

"Prior to 1967, labour relations in the British dock industry had been characterised by casual employment, inter and intra-union conflict, frequent unofficial action and high strike occurrence. The Devlin Report and subsequent legislation decasualised employment in the industry and introduced official local shop steward systems. This article charts the evolution of local, post-Devlin, Registered Dock Worker (RDW) labour organisation at the port of Liverpool. A chronological approach to the major strikes and flash points will be accompanied by reflection on the historiography and theoretical perspectives relating to the form and nature of workplace mobilisation, ‘shop stewardism' and labour organisation. The existing literature in this area focuses almost entirely on shop steward organisation in the manufacturing sector and emphasises the key role of leadership in the creation and maintenance of effective workplace organisation. However, the development of the shop steward movement at Liverpool docks was heavily contingent on historical traditions and conditions and was therefore not necessarily reliant on an elite stratum of politically conscious leader stewards to frame and direct grievance. The article concludes by comparing the existing literature with the evidence presented and questions whether those theoretical suppositions synonymous with shop floor and shop steward organisation in other industries are appropriate to the docks."

"Internal conflict in trade unions has been the subject of considerable academic interest. Often described as intra-union tensions, the basic divergence in priorities and concerns between union officialdom and their members on the shop floor has inspired a multiplicity of pioneering workplace studies and theoretical frameworks. However, while these hierarchical divisions in trade union organisations have received concerted attention, another manifestation of intra-union discord remains relatively under-explored. Inter-sectional or ‘horizontal' conflict can be described as two sets of workers from different trade groups within the same union which are embroiled in competition or rivalry, usually in the same workplace. Although the loosely associated concept of sectionalism was identified as a re-emerging trend in British trade unionism in the 1960s and 1970s, there has been little attempt to document how conflict can occur between two sections of workers working side-by-side. This article will present a case of horizontal conflict from the British dock industry and consider under what circumstances and pressures the phenomenon is likely to occur. The two sections featured historically had an uneasy relationship and rationalisation of the industry, allied with the neoliberal restructuring of the British economy in the 1980s, exacerbated this. In these contexts, workers began to exhibit greater levels of group self-interest which amplified inter-sectional tensions further."