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Jobs for Life

At 7.30 each morning 5,000 Liverpool dockers queue for work; by mid-morning 1,000 are usually home again - watching television, walking the dog, cleaning the car. They will all be paid whether they work or not: not less than &78.50 per week. That was the bargain - 'jobs for life' - which the union leader Jack Jones negotiated with British port employers back in 1972. It ended a crippling national strike, cleared the way for full-scale containerisation, and has kept the docks fairly peaceful ever since. But at what cost? Many dockers feel trapped and demoralised - but, in a time of high unemployment, they dare not risk giving up a sure but limited pay packet. Meanwhile the docks of Merseyside contract and they lose big money - most of it in labour costs. Man Alive follows Jack Jones as he meets dockers and employers along the waterfront where he himself once worked. How, today, do they all view the consequences of that 1972 'for life' agreement?

English
  • Originally Aired February 12, 1981
  • Created June 7, 2022 by
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  • Modified June 7, 2022 by
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