"Joe" wrote in message
...

No. 1 large container ships could not get up the Thames. No.2 they never
said that at all. At the time there was disputes about stripping and
stuffing containers. In the USA they allowed the dock labourers to do
that in special terminals. In the UK they wanted to get rid of the
established Dockers (hatred of unions) and employ scab labour.

As I recall, the dockers wanted a monopoly on goods handling within
ten miles of the port.

As was the case in the USA. The employers wanted terminals near the docks
using scab labour. The Dockers saw this and insisted on the what was going
on in the USA. That bastion of the free world.

Eventually the went the way of the USA. So, all for nothing.

The issue was largely one of 'shrinkage'. It was a rare place of business
(long before car boot sales) that didn't have someone
married to, or related to, someone 'in the docks' who could supply
low-cost goods.

A whole dock complex closed because a few Dockers were pilfering cargo? Are
you serious?