ABSTRACT
Labour development-how dockers were employed-how dockers were paid-unionsnumbers employed-labour v technology-how labour is managed
LABOUR DEVELOPMENT
To understand the tensions that have traditionally existed between management and labour within most dock systems it is necessary to see how labour practices have developed in ports. Unions have long memories, particularly in industries that draw their labour from a closed community and sons follow fathers into the same sphere of activities. In the late 1960s the author remembers overhearing a bitter discussion among London stevedores which made frequent pointed references to the “dockers tanner” strike. I assumed from the conversation that this had happened only months previously and was astonished to learn that this struggle had taken place in 1889.
