TNT: talks go on
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THE ARBITRATION service, ACAS, has been called in to settle the case of a TNT driver who was dismissed after he refused to cross the Wapping newspaper picket lines.
A national meeting last week between TNT and Transport and General Workers' Union national secretary Jack Ashwell fiiiled to resolve the six week disagreement. The TGWU runs a closed shop with TNT.
Now the matter has been referred to ACAS for mediation. Meanwhile McCabe remains dismissed, and TNT can retlise any ACAS advise to reinstate McCabe if it chooses. McCabe was working from TNT's Luton depot when he was suspended on February 16 for "failing to complete his shift," TNT says (CM February 22). He had refused to carry any of News International's newspapers out of its Wapping East London plant through a print workers' picket line.
The suspension turned to dismissal after TNT checked his references and found them unsatisfactory. The references check came coincidentally at this time, TNT says. All of the hundreds of drivers taken on for the News International work, including McCabe, were having their references checked, it says.
The TGWU argues that McCabe's unsatisfactory records — made up of previous convictions — are just an excuse for dismissal. These convictions are now spent, it insists.
McCabe has now moved temporarily from his home.
Part of the publicity which has caused his flight is The Sun's allegations that he is just a "two-bit criminal".