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• Following pressure from the Transport and General Workers' Union
Page 52
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the Dunfermline haulage company of M. A. Wilson and Sons has ceased business and its 45 drivers have been dismissed (CM November 10). A spokesman for the company said that after two years of almost constant pressure from the TGWU for higher wages and better conditions of service matters came to a head last week when drivers withdrew their labour.
Last month the union made a claim for a £5 per week increase and the tipper operators in Fife offered £2; this was refused and following a meeting between Mr Robert Wilson, managing director of M. A. Wilson, and the union the 'offer was raised to £3 with a promise of a further £2 next May. All the other drivers in the Fife area accepted the offer; Wilson's drivers remained on strike.
Mr Wilson will continue to operate his plant hire company and a development company. He told CM this week "The only people to suffer are the drivers who may not now. be able to obtain unemployment benefit. The union has been picking us off for some time now in the belief that what we do will be followed by other contractors in the area. On this occasion they might have done better to concentrate their attack elsewhere; at least their 45 drivers with us would still have been in work. You can't keep hitting a man over the head without him eventually retaliating."
The union had warned Mr Wilson that early in 1973 they would. be coming back to ask for four weeks' holiday and a 35-hour week. •
A spokesman for the local branch of the Transport and General Workers' Union said other employers in the area had made settlements of £3.35 and £3.50. For two years he had been pressing Mr Wilson to enter into written contracts with the union hut although wage increases had been negotiated Mr Wilson had resolutely refused to sign any agreement. The union official said: "He wants to reserve the right to pay the men what he thinks fit — to control their hours and hire and fire."