obs bombshell as IFC purges parcels
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110:NAL Freight Consor1 management dropped a 1 bombshell this week Ii 11 unveiled a nevy plan close the loss-making idline Parcels subs id la r y
merge it into the smaller :ional Carriers Parcels mess.
efor'c Christmas, NEC: cagement said it was still inpting to merge the two 'panics, but was insisting three cmiditions it wanted n trades unions.
hese were for Roadline -kers' wages to he frozen ile NCP wages were )wed to catch up, for drivers to be cmyed and for part-tone mr — mainly on loading ks — to be employed.
lLit the Transport and GenWorkers Union, which 1TCSCIltti ROAdlitte's
rkers, refused to accept
:e conditions, and at meet s with it and the National
ion of Railwaymen (repreting NCP workers) NEC's nagemcnt spelt out its new vivid plan.
t plans to form a new Tally, National Carriers
idline. which will he an )anded NCP business ded by Roadline managing!cror Graham Roberts, and which NCP's terms and
conditions will apply to the workforce and has indicated a preference for the NUR to represent the workforce.
The plan involves redundancies. but in a statement issued on Tuesday, NEC said it will not determine the number of job losses until later this year.
But their magnitude may be judged from the fact that a redeployment bureau has been established to identify vacancies for redundant Roadline staff to fill at other NEC companies and to arrange job opportunities with businesses surrounding Roadlinc's affected depots.
Roadline's current workforce numbers around ").,8(X).
The NEC statement also revealed that the two parcels companies' loss in 1984783 'exceeded Di million. It was 8.2 million in 1983/84 and sonic industry sources have suggested it could be as high ).1111 million ibis year.
TGWU representatives are meeting Roadline inanagt'mem today (Saturday) to discuss their members' future, and a Roadline shop stewards* conference has been called for Monday next week.
According to -I.(;WU
of John Moore. the new
merger pl.n, will lead to -the start of sonic soul searching by his members and colleagues, but he rejected NEC management's assertion that the TGWU has not been acting in its members best interests.
'Hu: general secretaries of the two unions, the TGWU's Ron Todd and the NURls Jimmy Knapp, are expected to meet SO011 to &CUSS their tinurc strategy, and the of the already troubled cl.mipailies being plunged into industrial disruption cannot be ruled out.
But NEC chairman Sir Peter Thompson, who last year blamed part of the companies' troubles on earlier disruption at Roadline, said on Tuesday: -This merger, which will he supported by a number of important investment and marketing initiatives in 1986, confirms our intention to compete aggressively and profitably in the ti.t.luti million-a-year parcels market.
Restilution of NFC's parcels troubles, the only poor trading area in an otherwise lnghly profitable privatised enterprise, is seen as an essential move betOre the group seeks a Stock Exchange listing.