A question about the Seamen's Strike

[vic mcclymont]

I can barely remember the seamen,s strike of 66 (I was only a teenager) can anyone explain the rational for the strike.
Reason why I ask, a letter in a a Scottish paper blames Wilson for abandoning the strikers and given shipowner big subsidies to build their ships abroad, was this true?
Did he(Wilson) sell out the MN?
vic

[j.sabourn]

I was Mate on the Ravensworth at the time and spent the whole strike period in Port Talbot. Used to see some of the crew who were on the bones of their ass towards the end and used to buy them a drink in local pubs. They were locked out of the Dock. Managed to smuggle the chippy back the day before the strike finished he was destitute. Had to climb over the dock wall and him to keep his head down on ship. I know the seamen were really screwed over the strike and came back worse off. I dont think anyone had a good word to say for Wilson. Seamen who were called out by the NUS will be able to tell you better if they considered it accomplished anything. Personally I think it was a put up job and was the start and finish of the British flag as we knew it. Cheers John Sabourn

[Ivan Cloherty]

General concenus at the time was the strike benefited no one, apart from union officials who continued to draw pay when their members could not. It is so easy to call a strike when it doesn't affect your own income. Many say that Mr Wilson if not actually the architect of the strike, certainly did nothing to impede or halt its progress. I was Supt ashore at the time and with the concensus of many our crews we traded on the Continental coast as much as we could to avoid coming back to the UK. Our office in London had innumerable seamen of all ranks and depts, in constant attendance wanting to know if they could get a job on the Continent. We had to keep our ships running in order to pay for new buildings already on the stocks in UK yards and our crews had mouths to feed, not many agreed with the strike as they could see no long term advantage. Of course there will be many who disagree with the above but when you are running twentytwo ships you get a very broad picture of what your guys really wanted, the answer was work.

As for shipbuilders getting a subsidy to build ships abroad, that was a complete myth, The company ordered its ships from UK yards right up until the 80's and supported the yards until the yards closed, there were no inducements to build abroad unless the foreign yard was more competative.

[Captain Kong]

This is off google wikipedia and the NUS..
.
.The Growth of Dissent and the Seamen's Strike of 1966The NUS's almost closed shop made the union stronger. After the Second World War there were widespread calls for reform of the NUS. Many members felt that the union was too closely associated with the employers and that it had failed to defend its members' interests. Rank and File Committees, building on the earlier Minority Movement, were established in many ports, and unofficial strikes took place in 1947, 1955 and 1960. A National Seamen's Reform Movement was established in the latter year.

A degree of reform was conceded in 1962, with the decision to allow a system of workplace representation by shop stewards. This brought the NUS belatedly into line with the general practices of the trade union movement.More importantly it brought greater connection to the union. Seafarers could be away from home for months or years, so to have 'a union man' on board, not far off in the Clapham headquarters, enhanced solidarity.

On 16 May 1966, the NUS launched its first national strike since 1911. The strike aimed to secure higher wages and to reduce the working week from 56 to 40 hours. It was widely supported by union members and caused great disruption to shipping, especially in London, Liverpool and Southampton.

The political importance of the strike was enormous: the disruption of trade had an adverse effect on the United Kingdom's (precarious) balance of payments, provoked a run on the pound and threatened to undermine the Government's attempts to keep wage increases below 3.5%. The Labour Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, was strongly critical of the strike, alleging that it had been taken over by Communists whose aim was to bring down his administration. On 23 May, a week after the outbreak of the strike, the Government declared a state of emergency, although emergency powers were not used. The strike finally came to an end on 1 July.

The last major strike launched by the NUS took place in January–February 1988 and concerned ferries operated by P&O.
.

Brian.
.PS.
In those days the Communists, Trotskyist and Stalinists were in control of most Unions in Britain, all dedicated to the downfall of Britain.
.

[robpage]

On 28 May 1966 , Harold Wilson said Communists were using the seamen's strike to gain influence over the National Union of Seamen. He said they were "endangering the security of the industry and the economic welfare of the nation". then He declared a "State of Emergency " . I think it caused a large LAbour party rift between the Left and teh Centre ground .

[cappy]

slaterwas the bloody president a confessed commie a big statue on the banks of the tyne to seaman with words about slater and lord pisspot and what they bdid for the mn only problem the statue overlooks the river of no ships all con men filling threr own troughs cappy

[John Cassels]

I was Mate on the Ravensworth at the time and spent the whole strike period in Port Talbot. Used to see some of the crew who were on the bones of their ass towards the end and used to buy them a drink in local pubs. They were locked out of the Dock. Managed to smuggle the chippy back the day before the strike finished he was destitute. Had to climb over the dock wall and him to keep his head down on ship. I know the seamen were really screwed over the strike and came back worse off. I dont think anyone had a good word to say for Wilson. Seamen who were called out by the NUS will be able to tell you better if they considered it accomplished anything. Personally I think it was a put up job and was the start and finish of the British flag as we knew it. Cheers John Sabourn

John , I was 3rd.Mate on the Arisaig also in Santa Portablo for the duration of the strike. Maybe we had a
pint together in the Walnut or one of the other well known establishments.

I went back in 1990 to do an on hire survey on a ship and the place had changed so much.
The Grand was still there but I couldn't find the Walnut , the Lamb and Flag and all the other
places that memories are made of.

[Tony Wilding]

Am not sure what started the strike, i know it did not improve things, was caught in it almost from the start, never did get any strike pay, had a mortgage to pay, so after 4 days i got a job as a labourer on a building site, operating the cable drawn bucket on a Benford Cement Mixer, the cable drew you forward , trigger operated, you dragged it backwards, was hard work, got paid a bonus after so many cubic yards, was earning almost 3 times my salary at sea, from £31 a month to over £80, and only worked five and a half days, then back to sea afterwards,

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi All.
I was on the NZ coast with the Union C/o when the strike was on, but when I was on the home boats I know that Sir Tom Yates head of the seamans union was knighted, and as everyone knows no one got Knighted for doing thier bset for the working man . Ask the Lord who was one of the leaders of the strike.
Cheers Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Like so many similar are later strikes this one may well have been engineered. The container was coming and there was a need to change the whole shipping system, what betterw ay to do this than to start a strike. A strike that would only hurt the members, not the officials. Wilson may well have had something to do with it as he did with the coal mines, but if you are smart enough you do it at arms length.
we hada similar situation here in Oz back in the late eighties. The airlines wanted to chnage the way things were done so they engineered a pilots strike. The gov of the day, Labor, whilst not admiting it were involved in making sure it occured. Labor from my experience here and in UK have done more to harm the worker than to assist them.