Road Haulage Strike Threat
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From our Industrial Correspondent
ROAD haulage workers are likely t6 become involved next_ time, if' railwaymen call another strike against the British Transport Commission's handling of its redundancy plans.
Leaders of the National Union of Railwaymen, who 'are planning a second and longer—stoppage unless they , get some satisfaction from Dr. Beechine, have made it clear that they will ask Mr. Frank Cousins, general secretary of the transport workers' union, 'for his assistance.
They want him to order his members in road haulage to declare " black " all goods and freight normally carried by rail. This would stop people ,beating rail strike by sending consignments by road," a N.U.R. official said.
One example of such beat-the-strike tactics which particularly annoyed the railwaymen was the emergency lorry service organized during the 24-hour strike to bring fresh fish from Hull to London. So successful was the service that wholesale fish merchants at Hull are considering whether to transfer their fish transport permanently from rail to road. They found that during the strike supplies reached inland distributing centres more quickly and more cheaply than by rail.
Others who may be involved in the next strike are busmen in London and the provinces and dockers. Such a move could bring the commercial life of the country practically to a standstill.
The involvement of btsmen and dockers would be taking up Mr. Cousins' promise of support given in the course of the transport debate at the recent Labour Party Conference. In both sets of workers his union has a majority of members, In London particularly, any official request for assistance would almost certainly lead to a sympathy strike by the busmen. Last time, even without such a request and without backing from their own union, they were prepared to come out on unofficial Strike and were only persuaded at the last minute to reverse their decision.
In the provinces the N.U.R. has itself a: fair-sized membership among particularly the.. B.T.C.-controlled bus undertakings. These would almost certainly
come to a stop, • .
Whatever the plans now being worked out by the union's negotiating committee. there is still hope that they will never be put intei effect. But at Present it is only a slender one.