In September 1995 five hundred Dockers in Liverpool refused to cross a picket line, they were immediately dismissed by their employer and replaced with a new workforce. This was the start of the Liverpool Dockers strike, a dispute that became one of the longest running in the history of British industrial relations. During the strike the Dockers made alliances with the radical Reclaim the Streets movement, they recorded the 'Fuck the Millenium' record with the KLF, and their official t-shirt, which was a direct copy of the Calvin Klein logo was made famous by Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler, who paraded it in front of millions of television viewers after scoring a goal for Liverpool. But the Dockers did not have the support of their union, who declared their strike illegal. Also, any hopes that a Labour government would come to their rescue were quickly dashed when Tony Blair's New Labour government made it clear that they were not interested in the Dockers or their cause. The Dockers finally accepted a pay offer in February 1998 after nearly two and a half years on strike.
