North East strike narrowly averted
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• A strike which would have crippled weekend bus services in five areas of the North East was narrowly averted after peace talks in Newcastle on Thursday of last week.
The talks resulted in 400 inspectors and depot clerks employed in five municipal transport undertakings in the region agreeing that a pay claim should go to arbitration at national level.
The men had threatened to stage the first of a series of week-end stoppages at 1 p.m. last Saturday to back their demands for more pay for working week-end and bank holiday shifts.
The peace formula, later agreed by the men's delegates at meetings in Newcastle and on Tees-side, was worked out at threehour talks between Councillor Neville Trotter, chairman of Newcastle transport committee, the TGWU and a local officer of the Department of Employment and Productivity. Cllr. Trotter said later that the men wanted the differential between their pay and that of drivers and platform staff restoring and any agreement would be back-dated.
The 400 men are employed by municipal services in Newcastle, South Shields, Hartlepool, Darlington and Tees-side.