Rebellious and Contrary

This text provides an authoritative historical account of life and work along the Glasgow waterfront in the 19th and 20th centuries. Glasgow dockers, composed mainly of Catholic Irish and Protestant Scottish Highlanders, were at the forefront of dock trade unionism in Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. Formidable and fiercely independent, they fashioned their trade unionism to protect the casual system of employment, preserve traditional workplace practices, and defend local Scottish autonomy. In the 20th century they broke away from two national British unions because of "the tyranny of English trade unionism". Reputedly, Ernest Bevin, leader of the Transport and General Workers Union, described them as "rebellious and contrary" when they seceded and formed their own independent Scottish union in 1932.