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Maritime London Partnership

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Labour unrest in the port after 1889

The 1911 strike

Police and strike-breakers during the 1911 strike. © NMM

Strike of the National Union of Dock Labourers, 1911. © NMM

Harry Gosling of the Amalgamated Society of Waterman & Lighterman was elected president. The new union immediately approached the Port of London Authority (PLA) for:

• a wage increase to from 6d (six pence) to 8d (eight pence) an hour
• improved conditions
• formal recognition of all unions.

Elsewhere in Britain, other branches of the NTWF went on strike in what soon became a national dispute.

Devonport's offer

Flag of the Port of London Authority. © NMM

Lord Devonport, the Chairman of the PLA, consulted the dock employers, wharfingers and shipowners. He offered:

• 7d (seven pence) an hour 
• a one-hour reduction in the working day.

The cost to the employers would have been £200,000 a year. But the union, who had won no meaningful improvements since 1889, rejected it.

The employers resist

Ben Tillett of the Dockers Union. © NMM

Devonport refused to negotiate and publicly declared that he would starve the men back to work.

Ben Tillett led a mass meeting of dockers on Tower Hill in a prayer: ‘Oh God, strike Lord Devonport dead’.

After a two-week strike the dockers were forced to return to work on Devonport’s terms.

• The Great Dock Strike of 1889
• Many hands: Trades of the Port of London, 1850-1980

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