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Irish
Seafarers & Trade Union Organisation
And The Struggle
To Defend An Irish Merchant Fleet
by Francis Devine 2002
©R.T.E. RADIO- FIRST BROADCAST 26th. AUGUST 2002 AS
PART OF THE THOMAS DAVIS LECTURES
"THIS ISLAND NATION" EDITED BY TOM MacSWEENEY.
Little has been written about the organisation of
Irish seafarers. What follows is a tentative sketch. It suggests a vibrant
history of international solidarity, constant battles against employer
scandal and Government indifference, and a deep commitment, beyond
self-interest, to the development of an Irish merchant marine.
In memory of the late Bernard Malone (stoker on Irish Shipping) — Barney to
his Irish Shipping comrades and Benny in his native Howth, where he was
much-loved.
Early Attempts At Organising Seamen
Organisation among seamen existed from the 1840s from Deny to Cork, Belfast to
Wexford. The 'friendly society' aspect dominated and mariners and masters often
combined in the same organisation for sick, burial and benevolent purposes.
Fishermen were organised in Ringsend and Cork Harbour, the Fishermen's Society
Of Saint Patrick banner being among those that paraded in the 1875 O'Connell
Centenary. The 1873 banner of the Boyne Fishermen, which hangs in Drogheda's
Millmount Museum, is a 'masterpiece, painted in oils on canvas and worthy of
exhibition in any gallery in the world'. As with Shannon eel fishers today,
concerns were for licences, access and quotas rather than wages and conditions.
Fishermen have sporadically organised since. The Irish Transport & General
Workers' Union recruited large numbers in the mid 1970s resulting in fishermen,
uniquely, being covered within the terms of the Unfair Dismissals Act,
1977-2001, a rare extension of protective employment law to the seafarers.
The Merchant Shipping Acts reinforced command structures and what might be an
industrial dispute ashore could be mutiny at sea. In addition, Irish mariners
tended to ship out of their home ports where relationships with owners and
masters were close and the cost of failed trade union activity could be
ostracism and/or emigration.
Many, of course, always sought work on British ports and it was here, in 1887,
that Joseph Havelock Wilson established the National Amalgamated Sailors' &
Firemen's Union Of Great Britain. Branches were opened in Arklow, Cork,
Wexford and Youghal. In 1890, a three month long Dockers strike in support of
sacked Cork seamen spread to Waterford and Limerick as employers attacked the
infant union.
Ship-owners resented the ' tyrannical attempts of a dictatorial body of
unionists to impose demands on the industry' and in September, 1890, the
Shipping Federation emerged as a powerful employer body, supplying strike
breakers and influencing mercantile law.
Until the 1890s, trade unionism had been confined to the traditional skilled
trades and was conservative politically and industrially. The so-called 'New
Unionism' that now exploded onto the waterfront extended organisation down to
the unskilled masses, involved sympathetic and general strikes, and carried a
distinctly socialist perspective.
Often seen as originating among dock labourers, 'New Unionism' can more
correctly be attributed to seamen. In 1894, Wilson revived his union as the
National Sailors & Firemen's Union Of Great Britain & Ireland. By 1896
branches existed in Belfast, Cork and Dublin. They were difficult to maintain,
however, and in 1898 Irish offices were closed with staff owed monies.
At this point Wilson was still 'militant, a rabble-rouser, a fearless advocate
of the seafarer, stumping the country agitating, organising and inciting'. He
was the Jim Larkin of seamen and in 1911 came his finest hour.
1911 - Wilson 's Finest Hour, 1913 - Wilson 's Disgrace
By April, over 150,000 seamen had voted for international action 'on the same
day and at the same hour, until their unions receive proper recognition,
establish the right of collective bargaining and uniform rates of wages and
conditions of labour on all ships'. Similar international strike action would be
relevant today in the struggle against Flags Of Convenience and the slave wages
paid to seamen across the globe.
In 1911 what followed broke the Shipping Federation's power and won a general
increase in wages. Wilson's triumph contained the seeds of his rapid shift to
the right as he sought strategies that would preserve his gains, keep control of
the 'ticket' from the Shipping Federation and maintain the advantage of
newly-acquired respectability.
Irish seamen fought hard in 1911. Dublin flags proclaimed - 'War Is Now
Declared: Seamen Strike Hard & Strike For Liberty'. It was, however. Big Jim
Larkin's Transport Union - appointed as agents by the Sailors & Firemen -
that represented the 400 Dublin members and paid them strike pay from Transport
Union funds. The desire to assist seamen in Belfast led to James Connolly's
appointment as Northern Organiser on 13 July, 1911, his first full-time union
position.
Irish employers, led by Samuel McCormick, refused to concede and 800 men were
locked out until Larkin and the celebrated British labour veteran, Tom Mann, met
with the Under Secretary For Ireland, and persuaded the employers to accept the
union's terms. Early in 1913, there were strikes on the City Of Dublin Steam
Packet Company and in Sligo, the Transport Union again representing seamen. As
the 1913 Lock Out reached stalemate, Havelock Wilson - as a member of the Trades
Union Congress Parliamentary Committee - appeared as 'reason personified' in
appreciating the employer's perspective and suggesting conciliation. Wilson
despised Larkin, to whom Dublin seamen were more loyal. Wilson suggested Larkin
'had a splendid case but made such a sorry mess of it, doing everything he ought
not to have done and nothing he ought'. Larkin responded with vituperation and
Wilson's decision to settle with the employers caused outrage.
Dublin sailors refused to go back and were quickly replaced by scab Sailors'
& Firemen's Union members from Liverpool. Even the steamship Hare that had
nobly brought in the first food shipment for the lock out victims was declared a
'black-leg boat'.
Connolly later witheringly suggested that 'the scab who carries a union card is
the scabbiest of all scabs'. Dublin seamen would be slow to forgive the Sailors'
Union.
It is seldom considered that 1913 was essentially a maritime dispute. As now,
the economy depended on trade through Dublin. Connolly tried to close the port
'as tight as a drum' in a desperate effort to break the deadlock and as
indication of his appreciation of the strategic significance of the sea. The
food ships, attempts to ship out the starving children, the dependence of so
many workers and their families on the maritime economy, all underline the
neglected fact that the sea was central in 1913.
That this is never acknowledged is part of the mental block that denies the
country's maritime dependence.
The Birth Of Irish Seamen's Unions
After 1913, the Transport Union represented seamen and fought a wage reduction
of six shillings and sixpence imposed by the British Maritime Board in 1923 in
Belfast, Cork, Dublin, Dundalk, Limerick, Newry and Waterford. The compliance of
the Sailors' & Firemen's Union made the Transport Union task very difficult
and they failed to break the Maritime Board's control of Irish seamen's wages.
Seamen on the B+I struck unofficially the same year to protest over
discrimination in crew selection and to demand the reinstatement of the wage
cut. It began a rift between seamen and the Transport Union, whose dock members
always bore the brunt of seamen's struggles.
In 1926, the Sailors' & Firemen's Union changed its name to the National
Union Of Seamen. In Dublin in 1933 the Irish Seamen & Port Workers' Union
was founded, followed by the Irish Free State Pilots' Association in 1935.
Boosted by membership in Irish Shipping, the Irish Seamen & Port Workers
campaigned for the establishment of an Irish Maritime Board. They had won an
'out-of-convoy' bonus during the War to demonstrate the value of being able to
negotiate directly with employers. An Irish Maritime Board was set up on 15
October, 1948. The British Maritime Board's objectives were to secure 'closer
co-operation between the employers and employed of the British Mercantile Marine
in the maintenance of the supremacy of the British Empire', objectives surely at
odds with the strategic needs of the Irish nation and its seafarers? Opposition
to the NUS was not merely a nationalistic expression but reflected tensions over
crewing methods.
In 1951, the Irish Seamen & Port Workers had a signal victory in a wage
claim, having rejected an initial Labour Court Recommendation.
The principle involved in this dispute was that an Irish union successfully
negotiated wages and conditions for Irish seamen, separate and distinct from
British seamen. Seamen were becoming a force in the Irish Seamen & Port
Workers and in 1954, Des Branigan emerged as a new, intelligently focused and
charismatic advocate. The union changed its name in 1955 to the Marine, Port
& General Workers' Union. Branigan's legacy includes the wonderful badge
that bears the silver starry plough and triple knot of Saint Brendan The
Navigator against a midnight blue background. The starry ensign represents Irish
socialism and the navigational safety of members at sea and the knot's Celtic
interweave exemplifies the interdependence and solidarity essential to trade
union members.
At Congress Of Irish Union gatherings, Branigan led demands for the proper
development of Irish Shipping. The country possessed less than half the minimum
recommended tonnage of 250,000 tons and no tanker fleet. Norway was cited as
example of a successful maritime policy that not alone underpinned the country's
neutrality and independence but contributed significantly to its balance of
payments.
Branigan's radical militancy offended powerful clerical figures and moves were
made to oust him from the Marine Port, the chosen vehicle being the jettisoning
of the union's seamen's section.
In 1957, a closed shop agreement - always denied to Branigan - was offered to a
new body, the Irish Seamen's Union. This new union was seen by many as a company
union and was opposed in a rancorous and unseemly dispute. Ship-owners in
Limerick and Wexford threatened to sail under the British Flag in order to deal
with the NUS and employers generally openly stated their desire to stamp out
what they called an undesirable element controlling Dublin port. After a
fourteen week strike, matters were resolved by the Labour Court and in 1959 the
Seamen's Union Of Ireland emerged as an independent union acceptable to the men.
Des Branigan was now General Secretary of the Irish Pilots' & Marine
Officers' Association and he set about seeking reform of the Pilotage Act, 1913
that condemned pilots to meagre earnings from casual work.
Less than a hundred in number, Branigan pointed out that it was 'through the
hands and skill of the marine pilots that the country's imports and exports
arrive and depart safely'. A bitter dispute was defeated and the broken union
merged with the Workers' Union Of Ireland in 1962.
Branigan still pushed for maritime policy, telling the Irish Trade Union
Congress that 'we have the geographical advantage, we have the trained
personnel, we have every advantage if we want to exploit them'. He concluded
that 'it lies with the Government if this desirable advance is to take place'.
And it still does.
The Battle To Win The NUS For Seamen
The NUS were a silent delegation to Irish TUCs. They were still recovering from
their ostracism after the 1926 General Strike and Wilson's pursuit of
'non-political trade unionism'. Wilson died at his desk on 16 April, 1929. King
George V and Queen Mary sent a letter of sympathy to Mrs Wilson. Lord Sanderson,
Shipping Federation, observed that he was a 'dictator in the affairs of the
seamen' and 'one of the few really constructive thinkers in the trade union
movement'. The Miner spoke for the majority and reflected the attitude to Wilson
within the British labour movement even to this day.
'We do not propose to overstep the bounds of good taste in our comments on
Havelock Wilson ... The War had a most disturbing effect upon his outlook and in
post war years he has been, in plain language, a faithful ally of the employing
class. His union ... has been a faithful servant of the ship-owners and he
himself used the whole of his own and his union's influence to disrupt and
demoralise other sections .. .He will go down in history as one of the
tragedies of the twentieth century working class movement.'
Wilson's legacy, compounded by the economic collapse of the 1930s, was a highly
centralised and rigid union structure. Seamen had no trade union presence while
at sea. The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, made no provision for shipboard
representation and enshrined absolute authority in the lawful command of the
master.
This command culture permeated the NUS where the General Secretary was the all
powerful captain of a trade union ironclad.
Mutiny slowly boiled and in 1960 the National Seamen's Reform Movement set about
the task of winning the union back for ordinary seamen. Waterford born Paddy
Neary was a leading figure and Dungarvan's Sean Cullinane typical of many
rank-and-file Irish seamen who joined the reformers. General Secretary Tom Yates
branded them as 'communists dedicated to disruption' and 'self-styled militants
whose minds are so closed that the whole development of collective bargaining
has passed them by'. A strike in 1960 advanced wages and conditions and
shipboard representation was finally agreed in 1965.
In 1966 a strike on the principle of the forty-hour week comparable to shore
workers lasted seven weeks and by 1 July saw 891 ships immobilised. Prime
Minister Harold Wilson declared a State Of Emergency and talked of a 'tightly
knit group of politically motivated men'.
The NUS was isolated nationally and internationally.
Some saw the strike as disaster, others saw it as the union 'coming of age'.
Above all, it at last cast aside the image of an Uncle Tom organisation
dominated and manipulated by the ship-owners.
The ghost of the collaborationist Havelock Wilson was lain.
2,000 people — 500 of them seamen - marched in Belfast on 21 May 1st.1966 and
Irish solidarity generally was impressive.
Gerry Doyle reflected on the strike in a letter attacking Harold Wilson and
George Brown, suggesting that 'the cost to the country compared to the cost of
meeting the seamen's claim is proof that this Government is quite willing to cut
its throat to cure laryngitis'.
Irish support saw the NUS affiliate to the Irish Congress Of Trade Unions and
Belfast Trades Council.
The 1967 NUS AGM was held in Liberty Hall as a gesture of gratitude to the Irish
labour movement and Irish people for their support in adversity.
Terry Clare, steward on the Rosslare-Fishguard route, was elected to the NUS
Executive Committee in 1955 and held that position until retirement in 1991. He
took his Executive duties very seriously but worked hard 'to get this union to
swing a little more to the left'. When Sir Thomas Yates retired as General
Secretary, he singled out Clare as 'someone who never agreed with me', a
compliment indeed!. Clare was a founder of the Merchant Navy Ratings
Pension Fund. Leftist activists dismissed an interest in pensions as indicating
a middle class orientation. This was a myopic view.
The collapse of the fund was a bitter blow to Clare, now active in the
Pensioner's Parliament and a vigorous campaigner for the aged at national and
local level. He was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1982 in recognition of
his pensions activity. He never missed an Executive meeting.
Bamey Crossan, a Glen Swilly man, had many years deep-water experience before
gaining a reputation as a NUS Official in the Thames Basin. He became Dublin
Branch Secretary in 1963 and, when he retired in 1991, not one of his members
was out of work. A quietly effective figure, Crossan's social conscience
endeared him to all seamen and generated commitment from shore-based trade union
colleagues when a ship needed to be listed or a cargo blacked. Nothing was
either too much trouble or too late at a night, whether the seaman was a NUS
member or not. Dublin Branch regularly contributed to national union affairs,
tending to concentrate on bread-and butter issues of annual leave, pay and
conditions.
After the fruitless dispute with P&O in Dover in 1988, the NUS's fate as an
independent union with a declining membership and perilous finances was sealed.
They merged with the National Union Of Railwaymen in 1990 to form the National
Union Of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers. Seamen were swamped by rail
sections and rule changes quickly obliterated most traces of a once proud union.
The Scandal Of Irish Shipping And Sales Of The Century
Seamen on the Irish Sea negotiated various Container and General Purpose
Agreements in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Seamen's Union Of Ireland once picketed RTE in defence of their members
employed by the national broadcaster as riggers! In 1984 the Government
liquidated Irish Shipping. There were fears for Irish Continental Line, Belfast
Car Ferries and the B&I. Speaking against the closure of Irish Shipping,
Terry Clare said that the 'Dail and the nation were held in contempt'.
Justice Murphy had found that there was no fraud involved but Clare said, 'What
rubbish. Fraud was perpetrated on the people of Ireland and the seafarers of
Ireland'.
Anger was unbounded. The Federated Workers' Union Of Ireland mounted a ceaseless
campaign, picketing the Dail, Ministers' homes and anywhere that the 'Save Our
Ships' campaign could attract support, as well as making endless appearances
before the Labour Court and Employment Appeals tribunal in pursuit of the sacked
members' interests.
Taosieach Garret FitzGerald's memory of the affair shows some unease as it was
'one of the most painful decisions we had to take while in Government'. Ordinary
Irish Shipping staff were the only sacrificed state sector employees in this
period of severe retrenchment to be confined to statutory redundancy payments.
The Government's subsequent response to the Insurance Corporation Of
Ireland-Allied Irish Banks scandal makes for an interesting, if not surprising,
contrast.
The B&I saw the workforce halved and wages cut by twenty per cent and talk
was of 'survival plans' in an atmosphere hostile to public enterprise and where
the future of the national economy, never mind a shipping company, seemed at
stake. The 1984 give-away of Sealink - described by the NUS as the 'Sale of the
Century' - created all sorts of precedents and pressures. Privatisation brought
crew reductions, worsened conditions and the continuous threat of cheaper,
foreign crews. Irish seamen on the Irish sea were becoming an endangered
species.
Not A Minister For Fish And Chips But A Minister For Shipping
Led by Barney Crossan, Terry Clare and Sean McCourt, the Irish Congress Of Trade
Unions adopted a raft of motions in the 1990s outlining the crucial elements for
an Irish maritime policy. Congress demanded the establishment of a deep-sea and
tanker fleet under an Irish or Euro flag. They want worker participation within
any emerging company and improved worker representation on ferry safety
committees. Flags Of Convenience needed to be tightly controlled and a permit
system to discriminate in favour of Irish and EU nationals in home waters
introduced, together with the extension to seamen of the EU Directives on the
Organisation Of Working Time and Posting Of Workers.
The Irish maritime industry is in danger of total disappearance.
What other domestic industry with such actual and employment potential would be
disregarded in this manner?
Terry Clare offered derision to the politician who, when given a marine
portfolio, said he was to be 'Minister for Fish & Chips'. 'We don't want a
Minister for Fish & Chips', said Clare, 'we want a Minister For Shipping'.
Sean McCourt stated that marine transport 'accounts for 99% of all Ireland's
imports and exports' but with so few merchant ships 'it becomes abundantly clear
that Ireland is largely reliant upon foreign flag vessels'. The current debate
on Irish neutrality is incomplete without a proper discussion of such
dependence. Whatever about entering or not entering military alliances, when is
the island nation going to enter an alliance with the sea that surrounds it?
Government commitments have been given about a minimum Irish merchant fleet but
they have been ignored. Congress adopted all marine motions with acclaim but
whether anyone has been listening is debatable.
The Coming Of The ITF And A Warning To All Shipping
The increasing incidence of unpaid Third World crews appearing in vessels of
dubious seaworthiness in Irish ports is an obvious effect of Flags Of
Convenience and the virtual slave conditions of many east European, Asian and
African seafarers.
Support was always given by Irish trade unions but in a piecemeal and
uncoordinated manner. In 2001 a meeting of all marine unions in SIPTU College
led to the appointment of Tony Ayton as International Transport Workers'
Federation (ITF) Inspector for Ireland.
It was reported recently that Ireland was second bottom of the European
league table for inspections under Port-State Control regulations, so the new
ITF Office in Waterford is not short of work in trying to implement the 'Uniform
TCC Collective Agreement For Crews On Flags Of Convenience Ships'.
The underlying problem is the absence of an effective European Union maritime
policy that will defend traditional European seafaring jobs at decent wages and
conditions, respect our collective maritime cultures and recognise the
significant contribution to the continent's trade and coastal environment that
well-trained, highly motivated and properly rewarded crews could make. Michael
Hayes of SIPTU is working closely with sister maritime unions to extend United
Kingdom legislation concerning work permits for seafarers to Irish ports. This
will give priority to EU nationals. SIPTU continues to campaign for the
restoration of an Irish merchant fleet and is appalled by the lack of training
and investment in what should be a dynamic industry. Everyone hails the Celtic
Tiger but few recognise that is, ultimately, a sea-borne phenomenon.
John De Courcy Ireland asks, how much is being spent on foreign shipping and
agents and can this cash not be directed to create and sustain a viable Irish
merchant fleet?
So, Irish seafarers have a long history of organisation and struggle. They were
central to the emergence of a 'New Unionism' with a socialist perspective. They
were at the heart of the 1913 Lock Out, an episode that should be re-assessed
for its maritime significance. The internationalism of seamen's trade unionism
was seen in the heroic food ships and the fluttering emblem of the National
Transport Workers' Federation on the steamship Hare. The defence of Irish
Shipping and cross channel ferry routes passenger and freight - was central to
trade union demands. Seafarers went beyond selfish concerns for wages and
conditions to express concern for the nation's strategic interests, its economic
wellbeing, genuine neutrality and independence, and the safety, health and
welfare of passengers and our coastal environment. Today, seafarers' unions seek
to defend all mariners through ITF agreements. It has been and remains - a
constant battle against a never slacking tide of public and political
indifference.
In thinking again of faithful and courageous ordinary seamen like Benny Malone
-stoker on Irish Shipping is to consider thousands of similar tales of
quiet dedication for little reward and less respect. Seamen's trade unions have
never been numerically strong. They have been charged with corruption and
internal mismanagement and they have been riven by dissent. But they have
survived tremendous odds. Then opponents have been powerful, international
shipping interests, national and European Government. They have developed a
unique solidarity nonetheless, served their members interests well and presented
to the broad labour movement and the political parties a maritime policy that
requires action - and requires action now.
"A warning to all Irish shipping is, that
unless these trade union policies are adopted, there will very shortly be no
Irish shipping. And no one will be better off for that sad eventuality."
Francis Devine 2002
©R.T.E. RADIO- FIRST BROADCAST 26th.
AUGUST 2002 AS PART OF THE THOMAS DAVIS LECTURES "THIS ISLAND NATION"
EDITED BY TOM MacSWEENY.
 Back
to Articles page
In compiling this article I am grateful for the
assistance of
Tony Ayton (International Transport Workers' Federation, Waterford),
Des Branigan (Maritime Institute, Dublin),
Denis Gardner (Seamen's Union Of Ireland, Dublin),
Deirdre Burrell (Howth),
Terry Clare (National Union Of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers, Wexford),
Barney Crossan (National Union Of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers,
Dublin),
Sedn Culinane (National Union Of Rail Maritime & Transport Workers,
Tramore),
Paddy Daly (Howth),
John Finnic (Services Industrial professional & Technical Union, Dublin),
Michael Hayes (Services, Industrial Professional & Technical Union, Dublin),
Carol Murphy (Librarian, SIPTU College, Dublin),
Jim Quinn (Services Industrial Professional & Technical Union, Dublin)
Ann Riordan (Howth)
and John B. Smethurst (Working Class Movement Library, Manchester)
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