NODA threatens strike action over ARC recognition snub
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• Tipper owner-drivers working for building firm ARC say they face the sack if they goahead with a planned strike this Friday (20 November).
This follows the company's refusal to go on recognising the drivers' association NODA in the South-East. Already 130 members have paralysed ARC premix plants in the region three times in the past two months.
The association wants to be recognised as the sole negotiator with the company, although the majority of ARC's 600 drivers are not NODA members. It wants management to agree to a national negotiating body to decide pay and conditions, and is unhappy with ARC's method of offering pre-written contracts to individual drivers.
ARC claims that most owner-drivers are angry with the disruption NODA's attempts at industrial action are causing to their business.
"The owner-drivers are selfemployed businessmen and our decision does not affect their contracts with the company. We regard our relationship with owner-drivers as a direct and personal one covered by an individual contract," it says.
Mike Binns of NODA maintains ARC's attitude of "do as we damn well tell you", is frustrating owner-drivers. At least 15 drivers have joined the association since the dispute started, he says.
"We only want to properly represent our members. We have never tried for a closed shop. We have been frustrated by the attitude of management for five years — we are posing pertinent questions which they are not prepared to answer; their attitude is one of if you don't like it sod off," he claims.
Members of NODA will withdraw their services over the weekend, and several have already been told that they face dismissal, he says.
The drivers and management agreed to a cooling-off period until 2 November, during which time ARC promised not to suspend lorry owners who had breached their contracts by striking. An earlier attempt by ARC to have the strike declared illegal failed to halt the disruption.
Up to 5,000 members of the Transport and General Workers Union employed by freight group TNT are to strike for one hour on Friday. The union says the action is the first step in its bid for an improved pay and conditions deal.
TNT is offering a two-stage package of 7% on basic wages. The TGWU wants 10% — about 211 — and has hinted that further industrial action could follow: "This is stage one. Our intention is not to damage the company, but to show our determination," it says.
Ken Anthony, TNT's personnel manager, claims that the strike will not disrupt the company's contracts. "This is a token action. We are not under any pressure — we continue to have good relations with all our employees," he says.
The strike, the first the fastexpanding Australian-owned firm has faced in the UK, looks set to win strong support. Industrial action could hit the group's bid to capture much of the Post Office's business.