War and peace: the making of a trade union

Our serialisation of Andrew Linington's history of Nautilus International continues with a look at how the sacrifices of the First World War finally led to better pay and conditions for UK seafarers

It took the Great War, and the threat of the UK being starved into submission by U-boat attacks, for shipping’s industrial relations to evolve to a higher level. The war put civilian seafarers right into the front line of conflict.Almost 15,000 British seafarers died as a result of enemy action between 1914 and 1918.
From the outbreak of hostilities unions like the Mercantile Marine Service Association (MMSA) and Marine Engineers' Association (MEA) were quick to assist their members.

As well as negotiating 'war risk' pay and agreements, one of the first priorities was to stop the appalling practice through which seafarers were taken off pay as soon as their ships were sunk. In 1917, a Board of Trade requirement for officers and seamen on ships 'lost by war risk' finally forced companies to pay wages up to arrival in the UK, to a maximum of one month's pay.

The MEA reported that some of its members had survived as many as four losses, yet the unions had to spend much of their time fighting for compensation for members who had lost personal belongings when their ship had gone down; such payments were not automatic.

As part of negotiations over 'warlike operations' service, the unions managed to get increased pay rates and pensions for seafarers serving on ships requisitioned for war service. The unions were successful in securing government agreement to reduce the rates of income tax for merchant and from vessels.

The unions also provided food and clothing for members interned in prisoner of war camps, worked with welfare agencies to supply clothing for seafarers coming ashore after attacks on their vessels, and established benevolent funds 'to relieve distress amongst members or their dependants caused by the war'.

'New respect'

As the war losses mounted the fragmented nature of the crewing arrangements for merchant ships presented significant challenges to the government. It had established the Ministry of Shipping in 1916 to had created an interdepartmental Mercantile Marine Conciliation Committee to ease problems with the supply of seafarers and head off disputes.

In November 1917, following a meeting between government, owners and unions which had been convened due to demands for adequate and standard wages, the National Maritime Board (NMB) was formed to jointly negotiate pay scales and conditions of employment binding upon shipowners.

Just six days later, detailed recommendations for standard national wages for seafarers were announced.

The need to better regulate the supply of seafarers was another founding principle for the NMB, which covered 'the consideration,regulation, and supervision of the supply,nationality, engagement, and discharge of seamen on British vessels by means of the establishment of a single source of supply jointly controlled by employers
and employed'.

Unions formed the Seafarers Joint Council (SJC) 'to secure unity of action… for the general improvement of all social and economic conditions of merchant seafarers'.

The NMB's existence was intended to be temporary but the SJC secured an agreement with the Shipping Federation that all the decisions of the NMB would be maintained after its demise. Both sides resolved to maintain it after the war, independent of government, and this body came into operation in 1920, with functions including fixing wages and conditions, supervision of the engagement of seamen, avoiding stoppages and lockouts, and discussing manning scales, leave, accommodation and welfare. It also administered the Mercantile Marine Masters & Officers' Relief Fund for those in distress as a result of sickness or unemployment.

This new structure was hailed as 'the first real experiment in industrial self-government for the shipping industry' and was credited with a dramatic improvement in industrial relations. In 1934 Board of Trade president Lord Runciman would tell Parliament: 'There is not one industry in this country which has been so free from labour disputes as the shipping industry in the last 20 years. I put that down entirely to the working of the National Maritime Board.'

The unions had emerged from the conflict with some lasting advances, such as getting seafarers included in the national unemployment insurance scheme, and the unions' war-related work went on long after peace was declared. They were kept busy pursuing war risk compensation claims, and pressed prime minister David Lloyd George for full compensation and reparations for members who had been killed, injured or interned. The MMSA also collected evidence about cases in which officers had 'experienced outrages at the hands of the enemy'.

The sacrifices made by seafarers were recognised by King George V's decision to confer the title of Merchant Navy on the commercial fleet, and by the agreement in 1918 to introduce a standard merchant service uniform, something unions had been seeking for some time.

However, the apparent harmony was soon to be tested. A letter to the Journal of the Marine Engineers' Association in 1917 from a member proved sadly prophetic: 'Newspapers wax eloquent nowadays on the value of the Mercantile Marine, but it required a serious crisis in the country's affairs to bring this to the notice of either press or public – clear proof that we have always been content to 'carry on' and make no fuss. A week after the war, we shall be forgotten again unless we make ourselves heard.'

One of the first priorities was to stop the practice through which seafarers were taken off pay as soon as their ships were sunk Pulling Together: The Making of a Global Maritime Trade Union by Andrew Linington