One argument which has penetrated popular common sense to erode any notion of working class solidarity is that dockyard workers should not pretend any job guarantee because other categories of workers in the private sector do not have any such guarantees.
In this case many forget that the government as the employer of these workers has its own obligations.
This perverted logic does not help anyone except those who divide and rule.
The counter argument should be that workers in other sectors who are rendered redundant by globalization should also fight for a social guarantee.
The social guarantee can take 3 forms:
1) The obligation of the state to provide free training to enable these workers to find a job with similar pay and conditions as the job they lost.
2) A basic income scheme which ensures these workers a living until such a job is found. But workers should not be expected to accept the first crappy job which comes along.
3) A basic income scheme for everyone.
I consider option 1 and 2 as practical in the short term and option 3 as possibleat a European level in the future.
In an ideal world everyone should have a right to an unconditional national basic income. This would make poverty history and ensure that workers only accept that kind of work which respects their dignity.
Unlike welfare dependency which labels the poor and puts them under the control of the state especially if it uses means testing to include or exclude, such a scheme would respect the freedom of individuals to control their own lives and not to be forced to accept the first crappy job.
While am not sure whether such a scheme would work, the aim should always remain the same: everybody deserves a decent life irrespective of any other factor.
For nobody qualifies freedom of expression or other political rights. The same should apply to social rights.
So rather than grumbling that the dockyard workers for asking their own employer to find them another work, we should be fighting precarious working conditions together.
And finally one should take note that this is not a question of working class solidarity or sectoral interests because precarious working conditions are a looming threat for middle class people, small businesses and society in general.