Row expected over 'casual' dockers

THE FIRST of 500 "casual', supplementary dockers | has started work on Liverpool docks-with just three days to go before the national port shop stewards' committee is due to decide its policy on supplementaries.

So anxious were the employers to push the initial batch of 39 supplementaries out onto the quays that they were virtually 'crammed' with the skills they need to perform dock work.

The normal docker's training course, run by the National Dock Labour Board, takes three weeks. In the case of the supplementaries the was Concentated into just one weas and they reported for allocation to their employers on Monday morning.

This week another batch of 70 men-nominated by docks branches of the Transport and General Workers' Union and employers from a big waiting list—is being trained, mostly at the NDLB training centre at Prince's Half-Tide Dock.

Saturday's meeting of the national stewards' committee could be stormy.

Dockers in a majority of the ports who will be represented have already declared their opposition to the attempts of the Tory government and a majority employers to expand the supplementary register.

Unlike permanent dockers, who enjoy a form of job under the 1947 Dock Labour Scheme, supplementaries can be sacked at a week's notice either by their immediate employer or the Dock Labour Board.

Employers and the DLBs thus always hold a disciplinary whip over their backs, which they cannot use against permanents.

In ports such as Southampton, where there is a large percentage of supplementaries, this already being used as a lever for speed-up.

Sir Humphrey Browne, who chairs the British Transport Docks Board which runs Southampton, has envisaged a further growth of the supplementary register. He joins the chorus of praise for the system from Tory Ministers John Peyton and Maurice MacMillan.

The Liverpool stewards, however, have already given notice that they do not intend to change their decision to accept recruitment to the supplementary register.

On the other hand, Tilbury dockers have called for a national campaign against it. And their stewards could well be joined in this call by men from Hull, Manchester, London's Royals and some smaller ports.

• Talks are expected later this week on the manning dispute which has held up the new timber-handling facilities at Liverpool's multi-million-pound Seaforth Dock. The Mersey Docks and Harbour Co says it hopes for 'an early meeting' on the disputed manning of the Seaforth grain terminal.