The Transport and General Workers' Union and the Devlin modernisation programme in the port transport industry, with particular reference to Southampton

The relationship of trade unions to the wider society is a recurrent theme of writers on industrial relations. Empirical validation of this or that view is difficult where there may be wide differences between policy and practice. Perhaps the most satisfactory area for the investigation of trade union action is at the level of 'operating decisions' i.e. at the level of negotiations with the employer. This is where policies have to be translated into practice or abandoned.The subject of this study is the TGWU and its response to the major technical and industrial relations changes which took place in the 1960's in the Port Transport Industry under the general heading of the Devlin Programme. The response of the union is considered at the national level, and particularly in the port of Southampton.The various factors influencing the response of the union are considered. First, the historical, technological and local contexts of the union's position are considered, in particular the effect of the National Dock Labour Scheme and the internal tensions within the organisation. Then, the influence on the union's position of the Labour Government's Incomes Policy and the then current practice of productivity bargaining are considered. Finally, the influence of social and ideological pressures on the union representatives is taken into account. On the one hand, the TGWU possessed great strategic power, and its docks membership a tradition of militancy. On the other hand, given the magnitude of the changes, the national negotiations, and even more so the Southampton negotiations, were completed with a minimum of conflict. The response of the TGWU to Devlin was important in smoothingthe implementation of the changes at both national and local level. This response of the union is considered in the light of the sociology of trade unionism, particularly problems relating to a definition of 'responsible' trade unionism.