ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the period from the passing of the West India Dock Act to the signing of the modernisation agreement with the London employers in 1970. The number of dockers working in the port of London grew steadily and in 1920 London boasted some 52,000 dockers, though many of these would find only occasional employment; the long depression of the 1920s and 1930s saw the numbers fall sharply to 37,000 in 1937. The 1889 dock strike also brought to a head the antagonisms existing between the dock companies, who held the right to discharge cargoes passing through their docks in the port of London, and the ship-owners. The scale of the new docks and the volumes of cargo that the new ships could carry, ensured that a large labour force was contained in a relatively small area. The National Joint Council continued in existence right up to the abolition of the National Dock Labour Scheme in 1989.
