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Chick faces Scots militants
Page 74
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PINIONS might differ on the urden — or stimulus — of ?ing an employers spokesman ! the current round of pay agotiations between the Road aulage Association and the .ansport and General Workers' nion, writes John Darker.
In choosing "Chick" Rolph its spokesman in the Scottish ly negotiations the RHA has cked a seasoned business man th great experience not only of e competitive road haulage odd but also of a multiitional business.
Chick, after service in the F, worked for KLM, the itch airline, for a long spell, perience which took him to
3ny parts of the world and
Dvided scope for various kinds negotiations. He once had to erview King Hussein about
-iding rights for KLM. He nks he was the first man to anise a business tour to pan by air, He insists, I think htly, that experience of busiss on this scale is relevant to smaller-scale activities in id haulage.
In recent years Chick Rolph s run two sizeable road haul firms, MacCall and Greenelds, of Kilmarnock, and the ghbouring Scot Haul cornfly, both with around 25 Iicles. He looks upon his licles as earning machines h the same kind of commer acumen that has made Sir ddie Laker famous,
motiating calibre
Last year, when Ken Kelly, of spoke for the RHA in Scotd, 'Chick Ralph was an acute !erver of the scene. He has no sions about the negotiating bre of Peter Talbot, who led the TGWU and is likely to do gai n.
Thick Rolph is a man who eves in doing his homework 'oughly before involving himin any serious negotiations. ie has discovered that road lege staffs were paid some )0m in 1977-8 but in a !pie week, a year later, the le figure came up. Hence, inference that with a 23 per t pay increase the total les bill should have been 6m. So haulage contractors not paid out the £46m that strike was said to be all it. The hire and reward sechas contracted. Own)unt firms, and maybe er-drivers, have profited at ?xpense of the road hauliers their employees.
here is confirmation of the 1 shown by these figures in numbers employed in the industry: '16,100 at the time of the strike, and around 15,000 now. Ton kilometres in the ownaccount sector are up by 16 per cent over the calendar year 1978. These details are only a fragment of formidable ammunition that will be presented — I was going to say shot! — at the TGWU delegates. Chick's researches have been so thorough as to include details of all State benefits open ti employees in the Welfare State He expressed much disappoint ment with the help availabli from RHA hq in preparing hi!
case, but he has certainly no allowed that to prevent his mas tering the complex brief witt which the road haulage employers, if they are tc negotiate sensibly, must be armed.
Chick is said by his friends tc be a bit undiplomatic at times. Hearing him question the Secretary of State for Employment. Jim Prior, at the RHA conference, did not provide firm evidence of this trait — which may not be a bad thing in the hurly burly of pay negotiations.
High settlement
His question to Mr Prior on the likely motive of the trade unions in pressing for an absurdly high ,settlement, and therefore aiming at power, rather than money, got a very blunt answer. Jim Prior did not want to comment on Chick's suggestion -that the RHA employers were being used as pawns in the unions' power game against the aivernment.
Said the Minister: "I would be silly to comment on that. Some people, a small minority, will make political capital. We must ensure the minority view stays that way. You have tough times ahead. Your industry lends itself to the pressures you speak of."
Scotland breached the resistance to £40 for 40 hours, setting a national trend. It is a fascinating speculation whether, this time round, Chick Rolph and his colleagues will be 'able to convince the TGWU delegates that the best hope for the economic viability of Scotland, not less than of RHA employers, lies in extreme moderation.
But in Scotland, with its century-old tradition of militancy, which is a fact of life well recognised by thoughtful RHA employers, moderation may be a dirty word.