I was a Docker, I was a Railwayman

Abstract

Kenneth Lunn and Ann Day (eds.), History of Work and Labour Relations in the Royal Dockyards , London, Mansell, 1999, hardback £49.95, xxi+1200 pp. David Howell, Respectable Radicals: Studies in the Politics of Railway Trade Unionism, Aldershot, Ashgate, 1999, hardback £55, viii+1446 pp. At a time when over a thousand dockyard jobs are threatened at Rosyth and there is growing evidence that whatever skilled workforce the railway industry once possessed is rapidly being eroded, it is vital to reflect on these important industries and the quality of their work and labour relations. Both railways and the Royal Dockyards represent special workplaces with their own norms, values and traditions. Employment in each occupies an uneasy occupational border country between the civilian and the military. In each loyalty was expected, whether it be to king and country or railway company and director. Royal Dockyard communities lived under the shadow of naval discipline and at times threat of impressment into the monarch's service. Similarly, early literature on the rail industry made frequent reference to the ‘railway army’, and newly established companies drew heavily on military personnel and organisational models in disciplining their nascent workforces. Staff were organised by ranks, each with their own uniform, and railway officers enjoyed messes and their rulebook was the equivalent of King's Regulations (Gourvish 1972; Revill 1989).