Deference and Defiance: The Changing Nature of Petitioning in British Naval Dockyards

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Petitioning as a method of expressing grievances in British history was not peculiar to any particular set of individuals, but was widely used by all sections of society for a range of issues. Given its origins, however, it became ritualized as the means of labour negotiation for workers who were employed by the state, and, by the nineteenth century, by municipal authorities. This was before the institutionalization of trade unions and their recognition as representative agencies for industrial bargaining. One of these groups of workers in the state sector were naval dockyard employees, engaged in the construction, repair, and maintenance of British naval ships. For these workers, the nature of labour relations, and the importance of petitioning as an instrument of negotiation between employees and employer, was both complex and dynamic.

It was the state as employer which characterized the context of work in the Royal Dockyards. Although it is the case that the yards never had a monopoly on the building of the nation's ships – commissioning in private yards was always an element, particularly in times of impending conflict – it was the unique nature of the employment relationship in these yards which set them aside from private shipbuilding concerns and gave the petitioning system a particular set of meanings. This system, tying workers into “the service of the state”, contributed, therefore, to forms of bargaining which were peculiar to national and local government employment.