Half the dockworkers were able to retire from work just because of their age. In a city like Liverpool, where there's massive unemployment, it would be very difficult indeed for those people to work again, especially after having been through a two and a half year strike. The same situation didn't pertain to another 200 to 250 dockworkers who aren't old enough to qualify for pensions, or are ineligible because they didn't have a pension scheme. All those workers are still unemployed. One or two have found jobs, but the employment they find is at very low rates of pay, with very long hours.
Unemployment is the highest in Europe.
In one or two areas, we're talking about a third generation of unemployment. The work is not there. That's one of the dilemmas that not just dockworkers, but large numbers of people in the community of the Merseyside, have to contend with on a daily basis. Work doesn't exist. That's precisely the situation.