Why Did Devlin Fail? Casualism and Conflict on the Docks

Following the decasualisation of dock labour in 1967 at the behest of the Devlin Committee it was widely anticipated that Britain's ports would enter a period of industrial peace and prosperity. In fact, the docks entered a phase of unprecedented militancy which persisted throughout the early 1970s. This paper examines why Devlin failed and demonstrates how continued insecurity on the waterfront, largely as a result of technological change, continued to be a source of conflict and dissension. More fundamentally, decasualisation was a necessary but not a sufficient condition for industrial peace on the docks, as institutional reform alone did not address many of the real troubles of the industry.