Road jobs not for us say dockers
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A DOCKERS' leader denied this week that port workers would take over road transport jobs as a result of the Dock Work Regulation Bill which is now going through -Parliament.
According to the newly-elected president of the TGWU, Mr Stan Pemberton, dockers were only interested in halting the activities of "bandit" container bases. These, he said, operated away from the ports and used low paid labour and did not observe proper safety procedures.
"In no port have I found a dock worker saying to a man working in a cold store 'That is my job.'
"Nor have I found a docker saying that a road transport job should be his just because it involves a container," he went on. The union was working to complete its network of liaison committees so that misunderstandings about the intention of the new Bill could be cleared up. Friction between dockers and other members of the TGWU occurred only in the few areas where such com mittees were not operating.
• The question of surplus labour in ports will be discussed by the Department of Employment and the National Dock Labour Board, it was disclosed in the Commons stand_ ing committee on the Dock Work Regulation Bill.