1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184 
isto
Page 24
Page 25
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
mare
Roanna Avison catches up with the first woman to be appointed a national secretary at the T&G and discovers her plans for the role.
Julia Long is getting used to making history. Not only is she the first female to be appointed national secretary at the ' I'&G section of Unite, but in her previous role she was made a regional officer at the same time as another female colleague —the first time that had ever happened. She has also worked in the only all-female T&G office in the country.
Long took up her role as national secretary of the transport sector at the T&G division of Unite on 11 June. Her responsibilities include national negotiating for quite a few companies; legislation; and attending meetings with ministers to put her members' views across.
Working her way up Before moving up to national secretary, Long was a regional officer in the Midlands and worked from the Derby office — the only women-only T&G office in the country. Before that she was a shop steward and says: "I've been around a long time and seen a lot of changes within the organisation.
"When I worked in the regions it wasn't just transport that I looked after, but also manufacturing. Manufacturing has been decimated over the years and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight,so I'm glad to be part of a sector now that's growing, albeit very legislated and facing many challenges."
Change is one of the main reasons she wants to be part of the transport sector."Changes are going to take place, so instead of having long hours and low pay we will try to get the right balance to make sure drivers do not have to work long hours to earn a decent wage."
The challenge is to organise the transport industry and make the necessary changes within the T&G and businesses to fight for better terms and conditions for members.
"I feel over the years the transport sector has been neglected and we need to start redressing the issues,especially low pay,"saysLong."When talking to companies we have to make them understand the pressures on drivers. We have an agenda within the T&G to make sure our drivers are on £10.72 per hour. I recognise that's a big gap in some companies where they are paying drivers only £7.50 an hour. To go up to 00.72 straight away is a big jump and ifs not going to happen overnight, but we need to address that issue."
To tackle low pay, Long says the T&G also needs to address the issue of long hours because wherever there is low pay drivers want to work long hours to make sure they earn a wage they can live on. When the Working Time Directive came in, the union felt it could address that balance because it limited drivers to working a maximum of 48 hours a week. "But because the government allowed there to be an opt-out this has been abused. If we know about that abuse then we will report it, but we have to balance that with the needs of our members, some of whom are on low pay and are taking their hours to the limit so they can earn more money."
Long is sure the T&G can achieve more than £10 an hour for its drivers "when we sit down with a company to redress the balance of long hours and low pay".
Understandably most companies want their employees to do as much as they can and feel restrained by the 48-hour Working Time Directive, she says. "We understand that we cannot get some drivers straight up to £10 an hour because that is a huge jump for their employers. We've just set up a deal with one company that will get the drivers up to £10 an hour by 2009."
Another issue the T&G is tackling is harmonising terms and conditions after takeovers. "Particularly in the parcel sector we're seeing a lot of consolidation: the bigger companies are buying out the smaller ones and in this situation we try to get the conditions harmonised within two years, although sometimes it can take three," says Long.
No instant increases She adds that she does not want to get members' hopes up and say they will get X amount next year."! want them to see we have to negotiate with companies and understand their point of view as well as ensure our drivers earn a decent living wage. They are professional drivers and need to be recognised as such."
Another area causing concern is that of cargo containers coming onto the UK's roads. In many cases there is no way of weighing them once they come into a port, so the driver doesn't know what weight the vehicle is or what he is carrying because they were loaded abroad. But, says Long. ultimately it's the driver's fault if anything goes wrong.
"As part of this we hope to improve the image of the driver with the public and will be launching a campaign in October with the In temat ion al Transport Workers' Federation.
We will be campaigning around the safety issues as well, to make the public and ministers aware that drivers cannot know what's in the containers they are transporting if they cannot open them. It's about driver and public safety. We want there to be health and safety regulations in place to protect our drivers.
"We also want to educate the public that there are not too many lorries on the road. Without them they would not have bread on the shelves or clothes in the shops. We cannot put it all onto rail—and even if we did, we would still need trucks to get it from the rail depots to the stores."
Some of the companies the T&G deals with now are European or global and that means the union has to deal with them in a global manner, not just at a local level.
Long says the T&G's long-term goal is to implement minimum standards within the industry internationally. "To do this we need to organise ourselves in the UK and Europe within the workplaces so we can carry our strategy forward for growth."
Achieving these goals will keep Long busy for quite some time, hut she is determined to get the best she possibly can for drivers. •