The dockers' strike, which began last week at the East
Coast ports and spread to London and Manchester, was from the outset a contest between the leaders of the Transport and General Workers' Union and a section of their followers. On Monday Mr. Bevin, the general secretary, convinced a Delegate Conference that the Union must honour the bargain made last year with the employers and accept a reduction of wages, by a shilling, to ten shillings a day, now that the index-figure of the cost of living has fallen ten points. The Confer- ence, by 136 votes to 18, decided that the striker- ithould t return to work at the reduced wages. The order was obeyed at Grimsby, Liverpool, Cardiff and Barry, but the men at Manchester and Hull hung back. On Wednesday the London strike leaders gave in, but their followers refused to resume work. We can understand the average docker's dislike of a reduction in wages while employment is scarce and while retail prices in some districts have not fallen as much as the index figure for the whole country would suggest. Still, a bar- gain is a bargain. Moreover, if the Union leaders could not carry out an agreement which the men accepted last year, the Transport Union would be gravely weakened. This would suit the Communists, but it would benefit neither the dockers nor the public.
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