The first of wo articles by Bernard Franks

Sports to deal with containers, roll-on-roll-off bulk carriers and unit loads?

The costs are phenomenal.

Sixty feet of water is needed before the building starts to accommodate the big ships.

HUGE COSTS

Tilbury cost £26 million to modernize, Liverpool £90 million. One gantry crane costs £250,000 as opposed to a normal crane at £18,000. One straddle carrier costs £40,000, against the fork lift er cokes £4,000. One container costs £1,300.

ompetition is further ir berine container cargoes vessels consultants McKinsey and Australlar will handle Eure an general cano trade.

firms, face huge costs tor capita invest. ment. a treignt-rate battie ana And for the small firms?

The word of them hrough of business.

A 'New Scientist' article quoted a McKinsey and Co. survey on the number of hands have wass under the old conditions.

ships' stevedores, shore lores, packaging etc.). new system can be covered by one firm of shippers. to develop alto thent "Economist" survey altogether. called 1970s' commented the problems for the Australian ish 30 the continental and o wil have spent ol £100 millions terminals, depots cover and equipment shree it invesenent at stake, it is not surprising that the shippini us to drag its customer maeaming, into the contained But even that kind of investment does not guarantee ontainer operators a place il he sun. New companies with write off are likely to seize A1: " пто тАЛіНО) atte senting themselves in the next decade and grow rapidly to compete with the traditional ship owners' The same survey also shows how sections of world capitalism see the possibility of developing an international ports 'The price of stability in the container trades is the growth of the purest form of nationalism in the shipping fleets of the traditional shipping nations.

The same countries have loudly and publicly criticized the developing nations for wanting to develop their own national fleets, diet cargo to them, and thereby "restrict the freedom of trade"

And further:

'The Germans who generate the largest share Continental trade, now largely carried in foreign ships, appear to see container ships as a method of regaining some their pre-war shipping position.

They are not at all worried by the competition developing the Atlantic, because they already talk terms eventual bilateral agreement with America in which GerAmerican ships will divide their trade between them.' A similar 'Times' survey ›tes under the heading 'Battle North Atlantic':

'The experts also forecast a competitive blow-up on the North Atlantic - which is reckoned to be the patternsetter for other areas. By the early 1970s there could well be an excess of container capacity which could lead to a rate war and a possible breakdo w n of the conference The conference system is where the biggest firms meet regularly and attempt to reach some agreement on standard rates and prices and on partitioning various routes and types of trade.

On the effects on small firms, the 'Economist' comments:

"The growth of giant companies in the transport business is as inevitable as it is in the rest of the business world today. No small company could have hoped to raise the capital needed to switch whole trades into container ships as the consortia are doing.' The survey goes on to show that these exporters have no alternative in the long run but to adapt to available services. Road hauliers also will be particularly hard hit, being faced with restrictions and increased taxes designed to push the traffic on to the railways. The report comments about one instance:

'As the door-to-door idea gets spread throughout Europe by an American trucking company, it might have been expected that Dutch hauliers, the biggest in Europe, would be jumping at it, but when • containers first came to Europe two years ago, the hauliers promptly cut each others' throats for what they thought would be the lucrative business of delivering and collecting the trailers. The result is that container rates are now so low as Vine container ships will transport cargoes carried at present by 8 ig container hire firms to corner the major transportation market UK-Australia container service.

to be uneconomic to many hauliers and they have lost interest.' However, the report feels that until the full development of rail carrying, the road hauliers will still be in business as far as containers are concerned.

At the same time a further problem exists for the giant companies. They regularly find that new systems which have become almost obsolete within a few months in the face of the latest technical developments.

Many firms who prided themselves on having invested in the most modern conventional cargo ships a few years ago now have out-of-date ships in the container age. In some cases they have even returned them to the yards to be modified to carry at least some containers.

Already scientists have pronounced it technically possible to build one million ton bulk carriers (the biggest ships at the moment are around the 250,000-ton mark). There is also discussion on developing nuclear - powered container ships. These would be faster, with more power, and would need to refuel only tour years.

Experiments are now being carried out with the 'Lash' (lighter aboard ship) technique. This involves ships specially designed for carrying loaded barges on the sea routes. The barges are then floated off or dropped off directly at outlets to inland waterways. recruitment rule (no replacement when a worker leaves) and re-deployment!

This involves giving alternative work perhaps many miles away, or, in conditions which forces the worker to seek other employment outside the industry, the worker is virtually run off the job.

(When London's St. Katherine's Dock was closed recently, many of the dockers were transferred to Tilbury, 25 miles away.)

A recent report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) has examined in some detail the working of the world's port systems.

The ILO, a United Nations body, describes itself as an organization which aims at the collaboration of governments, employers and trade unions the cause of social justice'.

In fact, its real aim is to combine some social reforms (more drinking water, better lavatories, etc.) with the employers' plans (introduction of time-and-motion, reductions in manning, and so on).

With its reports on various industries and its manuals on work-study and job-evaluation the ILO hands out recommendations like a sort of international prices and incomes board.

On manning levels, its report 'Social and Technical Changes in the World's Ports' put the cuts in numbers in Britain at a possible 16,500 or 30 per cent by 1970.

Abroad, in Rotterdam alone, 3,000 (20 per cent) are to go by 1975, while in Barbados, due to dockside berthing replacing offshore operations, ments are only just about to start.' Australia is also noted as being short of labour in the ports at the present time. This survey goes on to remark that also at Rotterdam the changes •... led to the conclusion that there were 400 men too many in the reserve 125 of these were pensioned off. It does not say what happened to the rest.

Similarly at Hamburg, with 300 too many, 150 men over 60 were pensioned off. In Genoa, 'consideration is being given to earlier retirement from 55 onward, if this required to secure the necessary reduction in the register'.

Significantly, the report adds, 'finally, recourse may have to be had to dismissals after all'.

After all what? - after all the promises of 'no redundancy'?

Bound up with these first major drastic cuts in ports' labour forces is the question of the size of work gangs.

Apparently it was found difficult to get dockers to agree to manning reductions, though some successes have been achieved as far as the employers are concerned.

One example given is Montreal. Here the basic gang was changed from 17 men for loading and 13 for unloading, to 16 men in each case.

Also noted is the case of New York, where the International Longshoremen's Association in 1965 signed an agreement accepting a reduction in the size of gangs along with greater flexibility.

Following this, New York gangs were reduced by two men in 1966 and a further one man in 1967, arriving at 17 needs of the moment'. For the employers, this last case, where supervisors dictate what size gangs shall be from day to day, is the ideal situation.

These, in general, are examples of gangs using traditional methods of working cargoes along with some modernization (pailets, stacker trucks, etc.).

With full containerization, major changes are made. For example, in Bremen container gangs consist of one crane drive helpers on land, three on four truck drivers, board, one foreman and one watchman—13 men in all.

Tilbury uses 12- to 13-man gangs while Belport in Wales employs eight men operating a single dockers in the traditional sense at all. The report adds:

'In New York employers also claim that eight men are enough for container operaBut the last word for the moment, as far as the employers are concerned comes from Norway where an agreement allows that :

•... for fork-lift truck work or for roll-on, roll-off ships two men may constitute a team and they may be employed on any cargo handling job. Compensation is offered in part in the form of pensions.' The Report also explains the importance of decasualization to the capitalist; that with modern methods a coming and going labour force is no use. As the Devlin Report put it:

'Casual labour produces a casual attitude.' What the employers require with containers is a small group of highly mobile men prepared to work shifts and keep the docks running 24 hours a day, preferably to be on call during this time.