Liverpool, England, dockers win strike with major international support, 1995-1998

On 28 September 1995 the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company fired 329 port workers in Liverpool, England, for joining a picket line in solidarity with fellow port workers in Torside. The Torside workers were fired for protesting against the “free-market” style of labor, in which there was no job security, no wage security, and a constant change of working hours. In this format, workers could be phoned at any time and asked to come in to work.

After firing their employees the company replaced them with substitute workers.  This treatment of workers in Liverpool, the fourth-most-populous city in England, reverberated around the world.  Shipping yard workers picketed against the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company’s action in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Poland, Greece, Russia, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

The company lost $23 million of its value in the first year due directly to those strikes. Strikers caused a 17.5% drop in profit in the first year as well. 

Dockers continued to picket, hold protest marches, and interrupt shareholder’s meetings in an attempt to make their voices heard. Musicians like Noel Gallagher of Oasis and comedian Lee Hurst held shows that benefited the workers in their strike efforts. Famed Liverpool star football striker Robbie Fowler showed his support in a United European Football Association European competition, when, after scoring a goal, he raised his jersey, revealing a shirt calling for support of the Liverpool workers. 

On 30 September 1996 one year after the beginning of the strike, workers in Liverpool announced that there would an international day of action. There were mass pickets to mark the anniversary of the dispute. Dockers in various countries agreed not to contract with shipping lines that used Liverpool replacement workers. In Denmark, three ports came to a halt, and workers in France and Australia delayed vessels that had done business at the Liverpool docks. 

The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company offered a settlement of 25,000 pounds per fired employee in February 1996, and agreed to hire back 40 of the 329 protesting workers, but the offer was rejected. More pickets and marches followed, while demonstrations grew. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, hundreds of workers marched, delaying the morning commute. Workers held demonstrations in London, including marches in Hyde Park. Workers also held a two-year anniversary strike in September 1997.

In February 1998, nearly two-and-a-half years after the strike began, workers agreed to a settlement that paid the unemployed workers 28,000 pounds each. The workers were joyous, as they felt they had been well compensated for their striking time.