Although the company, or individual, who produced this film is unknown, it was probably either made, or commissioned, by the National Dock Labour Board (NDLB), or the local board at Goole. Each dock in the country had their own local board, and the football teams competing in this cup would have represented these.   The National Dock Labour Board was set up in 1947 to run the National Dock Labour Scheme (NDLS) to which all dockers would have been registered. Under this scheme work would be...

Although the company, or individual, who produced this film is unknown, it was probably either made, or commissioned, by the National Dock Labour Board (NDLB), or the local board at Goole. Each dock in the country had their own local board, and the football teams competing in this cup would have represented these.   The National Dock Labour Board was set up in 1947 to run the National Dock Labour Scheme (NDLS) to which all dockers would have been registered. Under this scheme work would be allocated and wages determined, as well as providing training and medical care of dockworkers. This Register was in effect a continuation of the wartime scheme set up under the then Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin. As well as running this football competition the NDLB also ran other national sporting competitions, including a boating regatta in London and a boxing tournament.

Apparently, according to an article in the Goole Times of Friday March 25th, 1955, this Goole team had reached the cup final for the fourth time in the last five seasons. In his book Growing up in Goole Volume 2, Mike Marsh provides information on the matches played and team members (p. 29). This success may have something to do with the fact that Goole dockers often got into a friendly game with Russian Seaman in Goole importing timber (the USSR, as it was then, had a strong team in the 1950s) – see Port of Goole (1964).

 

Prior to the Second World War employment on the docks was casual: that is, workers would just turn up each day, on the "stands", and at this "Paddy’s Market", as some called it, hope to be picked for work for that day. Needless to say health and safety didn’t get much of a look in, and if you were considered to be a ‘troublemaker’ for any reason – such as protesting against working conditions or wages – the chances of getting picked were much less. During the war it naturally suited the government to have a regular and controlled workforce. After the war this requirement remained – labour turnover was high – but the regulation scheme was in part in conflict with the interests of dock and shipping companies: in having a dis-united and cheaper workforce. 
The dockers clearly wanted the scheme to continue, and an unofficial strike broke out in 1945, initially over pay, but then also adopting the demand for a "Dockers’ Charter". This Charter, although later adopted by the TGWU as official union policy, was in fact drawn up by committees of ordinary rank-and-file dockers.   As well as demanding an end to casual labour – so that there was only one call per day – it also called for a fall-back guarantee equal to the basic wage, if without work, and pensions for retired dockers.


 

The result, the NDLS, was a compromise between these demands from the dockers, the interest of the T&G leadership, the union that represented most dockers, and the interests of the employers. The NDLB consisted of 50% union and 50% employer representatives. Despite giving considerable control to the union, this didn’t mean that the dockers themselves were necessarily happy. Although there was fallback pay, so workers got a wage for turning up to the hiring pen, gangs were tied to particular ships and so could be paid quite different rates. Hence another national strike broke out in 1949, with ten major strikes between 1945 and 1955, and the docks continued to have outbreaks of unofficial strikes in many ports through to the 1990s. 

 

In fact at the time that this film was made conflict between many dockers and the Transport and General Workers’ Union leadership–paid TGWU officials were not elected –was coming to a head. Between September 1954 and May 1955 ten thousand dockers left the T&G and joined the National Amalgamated Stevedores and Dockers (NASD) –a union with origins going back before the T&G. Bill Hunter reports that this included approximately 40 per cent, of the dock workers in Liverpool, Birkenhead, Manchester and Hull. As a result several well known members of the Stevedores, the "blue" union, were victimised in 1955, and the NASD were expelled from TUC in 1959 for ‘poaching’ TGWU members.

 

The friendliness of the relations between the dockers and the NDLB suggested by this film may therefore hide underlying tensions. However, in another film made shortly after this by Goole Chamber of Commerce, Port of Goole (1964), it is asserted that Goole dockers were renowned for not taking strike action. It also states here that Goole dockers are the national champions of football (and cricket), and would play the Russian ship workers after they had unloaded their cargoes of timber. See the Context for this film for more on Goole docks.

 

Lord Crook, seen in the film, became Chairman of the National Dock Labour Board after the first Chairman, Charles Ammon, resigned for opposing the Government’s position on the 1949 dock strike. Lord Crook was also a Delegate to the UN and served as Vice-President of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal between 1952 and 1971. In 1967 a revised Dock Workers' Scheme was implemented to give registered dockers permanent employment. Again this was the result of pressure from below, after the establishment of a National Port Shop Stewards Committee. In line with its policy towards organised labour, and breaking up established working practices, the Thatcher Government disbanded the NDLS in April 1989. The dockers came out in strike against this, but to no avail. This meant that casual labour returned, albeit with a greatly reduced workforce: from 23,000 men on the Dock Register to only 16,500 in 1971 and only 9,000 by the time of its abolition.

 

The decline in British docks has often been laid at the door of the dock workers, the strikes and restrictive practices. Yet major factors included lack of investment, competition from foreign ports, a decrease in trade, and, most importantly, containerisation. The outgoing director of the National Dock Labour Scheme at the time that it was disbanded, Nicholas Finney, claims that it put a stranglehold round Britain’s ports. In a speech in 1990 Finney states that in their campaign to abolish the National Dock Labour Scheme, “We had a Times columnist write headlines like "dock ages on the docks", "queer seaside customs", "legalised extortion racket", "time to end it", "block those dock rip offs". We also encouraged radio and television to do documentary programmes on the docks scandal.” In 1989 all national agreements and port agreements were removed, as was all industry Conciliation and Arbitration procedures. Labour pooling was eliminated and totally flexible shift patterns were introduced along with part time working and contracting out.

 

Along with the going of the National Dock Labour Board, the Newland's Cup will have undoubtedly gone too, although it may well have stopped before then. There may still be records of Goole’s participation in this competition, and certainly recollections of those who played in it, which will hopefully be rekindled by this film.

 

(with special thanks to Pat Penistone, Library Assistant, Goole Local Studies Library)

 

References

 

Bill Hunter, They Knew Why They Fought: Unofficial Struggles and Leadership on the Docks, 1945-1989, Index Books, London, 1994.

Mike Marsh, Growing up in Goole Volume 2, Chronicle, 1999.

Nicholas Finney Speech

Bob Pennington, Docks: Breakaway and Unofficial Movements

William Hunter, Hands off the ‘Blue Union’! Democracy On The Docks