Commenta
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THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT)
SECRET
C. P. (49) 151
15TH JULY, 1949
CABINET
31
COPY NO.
THE DOCK LABOUR INDUSTRY AND
THE NATIONAL DOCK LABOUR BOARD
Memorandum by the Minister of Labour
and National Service
I think it advisable that when considering the memoran dum by the Minister of Transport (C. P. (49) 145) the Cabinet should have before them my views on the issues raised in that paper.
2.
I am in general agreement with the description of the present situation in the industry given in paragraphs 1 - 8 of the Minister of Transport's paper. I am, however, in disagree- ment with the implication in the remainder that the disrupting condition of unrest in the industry can in any way be related to the organisation of the National Dock Labour Board. One has only to look at Annex 'B' of the Minister of Transport's paper to see that of all the many irritating disputes which have arisen, only a very few have anything whatever to do with the Dock Labour Scheme. Nearly all the disputes are on questions of rates of pay and similar matters which are nothing to do with the National Dock Labour Board but are entirely a matter of normal industrial negotiations under the aegis of the National Joint Council for the Port Transport Industry. It is true that there are a few disputes which have arisen out of disciplinary action taken under the Dock Labour Scheme and some on questions of allocation of work and on the reduction of the registers. To suppose that if all the suggestions made by the Minister of Transport about the organisation of the Decasualisa- tion Scheme had been in operation any one of these disputes would have been avoided, is really making an assumption for which there is no evidence.
3.
In paragraph 9 the Minister of Transport appears to suggest that the industry would have worked moře smoothly if the trade unions had been kept entirely out of the administra- tion of the Scheme and if its administration had been entrusted solely to the Port Authorities. I am quite certain that if the Government had attempted any such arrangements we should have found the organised workers solidly against us and if we had enforced it by Government action, the friction and disputes would have been multiplied.
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In paragraph 11 the Minister of Transport says that a modification of the present arrangements of the Dock Labour Scheme is urgently needed if we are to avoid a succession of unofficial strikes. In my view it is entirely wrong to suppose that some modifications of the Dock Labour Scheme can possibly remove the underlying causes of this recurring unrest in the industry. It is true that the Dock Labour Scheme as at present organised hes not succeeded in inculcatingpthe proper spirit of cooperation and loyalty amongst the dock workers in general. It is equally true in my view that without this Scheme the unrest would have been far worse than it has proved to be.
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