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6.
The
Great Dock Strike of 1889
The Causes of the Strike
The
Dock Strike of 1889 took place against the background of growing
trade unionism among unskilled workers and the wretched conditions
in which dockers and their families lived.
Life for them was a constant struggle against heavy odds. At the
root of this was the casual nature of dock labour which produced
bitterness and desperation. The strike was the result of a combination
of causes.
Each of the factors described below contributed to the circumstances
which led to the outbreak of the strike in mid-August 1889.
The
call-on
A:
At that time the call-ons took place frequently in the day and they
seemed to be calculated to inflict upon the dock workers the maximum
of inconvenience, discomfort, anxiety, and misery. The first call
of the day was at seven o'clock in the morning.
A second took place just before eight o'clock, a third forty-five
minutes later, and a fourth at a quarter to one. In the intervals
the unfortunate wage-slaves who had not caught the foreman's eye
had to loaf about and kill time as best they could. In wet and cold
their misery can better be imagined than described ...
At the "cage", so termed because of the stout bars made
to protect the "caller-on", men ravening for food fought
like madmen for the ticket.
As a brute would throw scraps to hungry wolves to delight in the
exhibition of the savage struggle for existence, with beast tearing
each other to pieces, so these creatures would delight in the spectacle.'
BenTillett,
Memories and Reflections, 1931.
Physical
condition of the workers
B:
The poor fellows are miserably clad, scarcely with a boot on their
foot, in a most miserable state ...
These are men who come to work in our docks who come on without
having a bit of food in their stomachs, perhaps since the previous
day; they have worked for an hour and have earned 5d. [2p]; their
hunger will not allow them to continue: they take the 5d. in order
that they may get food, perhaps the first food they have had for
twenty-four hours.'
Colonel G.R. Birt, the general manager at Millwall Docks, to a Parliamentary
committee (quoted by John Pudney in London's Docks, 1975).
Wages
C: 'It is this utter uncertainty of employment which renders
the casual dock labourer's earnings so scanty; for the rate per
hour by which he is paid is not excessively low.
He is paid uniformly at the rate of 5d. [2p] an hour, with in some
cases, an extra penny an hour for overtime - i.e. work done between
6 p.m. and 6 a.m. ...
The average pay earned per week is put down variously at 3s. [15p]
and 7s. [35p]. Striking averages is of course difficult where employment
is chiefly a matter of luck.'
TheTimes, 29 August 1889.
D:
Wages of trades in and around 1889
| Fitters
and turners |
38s.
[£1.90p], 54-hour week |
| Bricklayers |
9d.
[4p] an hour, average week 52'/2 hours [£2.10p per week] |
| Building
labourers |
6d.
[2'/2p] an hour, average 52Vz hours [£1.31p per week] |
| Compositors |
36s.
[£1.80p] for a 54-hour week |
| Skilled
furniture workers |
9d.
[4p] an hour, 52-hour week [£2.08p per week] |
| Agricultural
labourers |
13s.
4d. [67p] a week, hours at master's discretion |
British
Labour Statistics, Department of Employment [quoted in The Great Dock
Strike of 1889 by Terry McCarthy].
The contract system and 'plus' payments
The contract system (see Chapter 5)
and 'plus' payments further antagonised the dockers. The contractors
or gangers not only worked their gangs mercilessly but often had to
be treated to drinks or bribed by men desperate to be taken on.
The 'plus' payments were a sort of bonus paid for work done quickly
and were calculated according to the amount of goods the dockers moved.
These payments often led to arguments and disputes as it was never
clear how they were calculated; but the situation was made worse when,
without explanation, these payments were decreased at the end of the
1880s.
Depression
and the effects of competition
E:
A trade depression in the 1880s meant that the dock companies were
competing fiercely for trade. They cut their rates to attract ships
into their own docks rather than others. It was the dockers who
suffered as a result of this.
This trade depression of the rnid-1880s indeed forced the companies
to economise in manpower by pushing casualisation to its cruellest
limits.
Men were called on or paid off at any time of the day. They were
employed literally by the hour - at 5d. an hour.'
John Pudney, London's Docks. 1975.
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