ardrossan dockers

[brvhrtjimmy]

heres a wee one min video i came across on youtube ,wonder if anyone recognises anybody.

[youtube][/youtube]

Jamws Barr (Brvhrtjimmy)

[Stanley]

In the first scene showing two men sitting, the guy on the left is Tam Martin. Tam died about ten years ago. Some of his brothers were also Dockers at Ardrossan - Alex, Jimmy, Tony and Campbell.

[gnyaff]

The only thing I recognised was the car that was being washed, it looked like a Ford Anglia. That video must be around 35 to 40 years old.

Wee Boney

[Mitchy]

Is one of the guys Frank Clarke, known as 'Dumper' Clarke?

[Stanley]

In the scene where a guy is wearing a bobble hat, the grey haired man with his arm round the hat wearer is Joe Fitzsimmons. Joe was the last provost of Ardrossan Burgh.

[Catherine Belle]

Is one of the guys Frank Clarke, known as 'Dumper' Clarke?

Which one is he....?

[little plum]

The dockers post reminded me of news paper story some years back of an Ardrossan girl claiming her right to a job in the docks of Ardrossan, her father being a docker. This must have been an unwritten rule and would be more of a tradition, her case came under the sex descrimination act. Do,nt recall the outcome but maybe a 3t might elaborate.

[Stanley]

The girl in question was Tricia McCann. Tricia applied for a job as a Docker but there was already a waiting list. She argued she should be given a job ahead of the other people on the list because her father (who was a Docker) had died.

The tradition in the Dock was that if there was a vacancy, a Docker's child would fill it. A vacancy was created by the death of Tricia's dad and she wanted to take his job. As I said, there was already a waiting list of Dockers' children and Tricia wasn't on it. It was also the case that her older brother had already got a job as a Docker because of an earlier vacancy.

Tricia tried to take the Harbour Company to court, saying they had discriminated against her on the grounds of her sex, but it was thrown out. It wasn't because she was a girl that she didn't get the job, it was because there was already a waiting list of people at least as qualified as her.

Of course, European Union regulations would now prevent such protectionism as Dockers safeguarding jobs for their children, and Margaret Thatcher's scrapping of the National Dock Labour Scheme killed off wee commercial ports like Ardrossan anyway.

[little plum]

Thank,s Stanley for the refresher on local news but dont you think there will be a lot of dockers, hauliers and policemen thanking Maggie for importing Columbian coal mined by children which destroyed the miners union.

[Stanley]

Little Plum,

I don't know about elsewhere, but coal landed in North Ayrshire in the lead-up to the miners strike and throughout the conflict was off-loaded at Hunterston, which wasn't a registered port manned by Dockers.

I picketed Hunterston during the strike in support of the miners and the police on duty were OK. Some of them had relations who were miners. As for the police at Orgreave and other pits, they were scum.

I also still get the red mist whenever I see a Yuill & Dodds lorry on the road. They were the b******s who transported the coal from Hunterston.

[little plum]

Hi Stanley
My sister is married to a redundant miner ( Bilsten Glen , outside Edinburgh). I remember it well, the lorries were exempt from speed limits and tachograph controls. The overtime the police run up enabled them to purchase new houses and cars, of course they would be sympathetic and Maggie showed her double standards by importing coal mined by children. My brother-in-law informed me at the time they were producing the managements required tonnage per shift yet it was shut down as it was deemed non profit making . When he recieved his redundancy package he like others invested it in the buyout of the mine, some Ayrshire miners also invested in this consortium. When they started to produce coal from the seam , which I was told was of a good quality ,they struggled to find a market. Maggie was making sure the miners union had no influence on the workforce and ever since then the unions have been reduced to a token of their previous influence. Like you I still see a red mist but not just for the haulage company but all the government stratagies used to undermine the working man.

[IANBRUCE1]

The guy next to Tam Martin I think is a crane driver Jim OHare, the standing dockers may be from the right Willie Walker, Jimmy Bruce, Jackie Fitzsimmons, John McLauchlin and ??? McKay the hat guy may be Jim Kelly. The guy walking toward the camera at the end, I think worked with the NIT, and lived on Stanley Road, Brian something?