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5th April 1968, Page 104
5th April 1968
Page 104
Page 104, 5th April 1968 — Janus comments
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The alienated lorry driver

LORRY DRIVERS are different from other people. They do not fit easily into the usual occupational classifications. Their behaviour and their reactions are seldom what might be expected. They are the mavericks of the industrial scene. The fact that comparatively few of them belong to a trade union makes them all the more unpredictable.

Recent events on Merseyside have illustrated the point. It has not even been possible to find a reliable estimate of the number of drivers on strike. The reasons given for the strike have varied from one report to another.

The unions were inclined to support the theory that the Liverpool drivers were upset by the refusal of the Road Haulage Wages Council to accept a claim for £1 a week on the basic rates of pay. The demand for a £16 a week minimum, however, represented an increase of considerably more than £1.

Another suggested motive was resentment at the agreement to pay dockers a guaranteed weekly wage of £17. This is popularly known as fallback pay and is not regarded as the basis on which overtime charges are calculated. Few if any drivers are likely to be receiving less than £17 in their weekly pay packet and it is difficult to understand why they should be annoyed at the award to the dock workers.

Generalized unrest

Many of the drivers who have become involved in the Merseyside strike are not dissatisfied with their present earnings. They have stopped work reluctantly often as a result of threats. Apart from a generalized unrest and uneasiness the impulse behind the dispute remains a mystery.

It has even been suggested that the Transport Bill is responsible. Whatever reassurances may be given, drivers are suspicious that the proposed reduction in their hours will inevitably mean a reduction in their pay. They have an almost instinctive dislike of the tachograph or recorder which they regard as a computerized spy designed to deprive them of their present freedom. They are apprehensive about the proposed new types of offence and the considerably higher penalties.

There would be a touch of irony in making the Bill a contributory factor to the strike. Although the road transport associations have refused to co-operate, many individual operators or groups of operators have urged limited industrial opposition to the Bill by means of a one-day cessation of work. The intention is to show the public and the Government the cardinal importance of the industry which the Bill seems likely to weaken.

Already the Merseyside standstill has proved this particular contention. In most other industries the effect of a strike is normally not felt by the public for some time. Within two or three days of the stoppage of work by Liverpool drivers there were complaints of shortages, some of them serious. One of the quickest ways of strangling a community is to deprive it of the services of road transport.

Militant operators would not object to a token strike by drivers as a means of stopping the progress of the Bill. Among drivers themselves and not only in Liverpool there have been threats that in the last resort they would stop work as a warning to Mrs. Barbara Castle to have second thoughts. If this has played any part in starting the chain of events on Merseyside the employers may have felt some sympathy for the sorcerer's apprentice whose magic spells worked only in one direction. It is easier to propose a strike than to stop one.

Mrs. Castle has shown surprise that drivers should object to proposals which she had intended should be to their advantage. When she inspected work on M6 near Walsall recently she was met not only with protests from the action group of hauliers in South Staffordshire but with boos and placards from more than 50 lorry drivers.

There was further opposition later in the day when she spoke in support of the Labour candidate in the Dudley Parliamentary byelection. Her stormy reception on both occasions—and the subsequent by-election result—may have led her to feel that the day's work was not entirely satisfactory.

Usual competence

She showed her usual competence in dealing with the objectors. Mr. Reginald Cooper, managing director, Cooper's Road Services Ltd., Wednesbury, had pointed out that he had more than 60 drivers employed on ferrying 280 tons of engineering components a day to Scotland and that the railways could not handle that volume of business. Mrs. Castle's reply was that if the railways were not able to do the work, Mr. Cooper would be given his special authorization.

With the drivers the Minister was equally reassuring. The new proposals would not mean a reduction in earnings, she said. "They will mean that you will do an honest day's work of nine hours only." With rescheduling and more productivity they would get the same money for a shorter working day. The unions had indicated it was time that the number of hours worked was reduced.

It is a natural assumption by the Minister that this line of argument must be acceptable to any body of workers. She was scornful about what she described as "paper hours" which mean that "the chaps have time in hand to complete their trips". The unions admitted, she went on, that paper hours were put down because the basic rates of pay were so low.

What the unions are prepared to admit is not always accepted even by the proportion of drivers who are union members. It is true that what appear as driving hours on the record are not always driving hours on the road, although there may be argument about the extent to which this happens.

Bizarre juggling

The reasons for this bizarre juggling with time may be more complex than the Minister supposes. In some cases the driver may actually prefer to work long hours. To say that he regards his occupation as a vocation would be misleading. What is certain is that he enjoys his day's activities in a way which is not possible in most comparable industrial jobs.

Mrs. Castle herself may think nothing of working up to perhaps 16 hours in a busy day. She would hardly imagine that this called for an explanation. She is absorbed in what she is doing. It should not be too hard for her to imagine that the lorry driver has something of the same attitude towards his work—although he expresses it in a different way, with among other things a disregard for productivity and the other political idols.

In the curious language of sociology Mr. Peter Hollowell had some interesting things to say in his study of The Lorry Driver. He sees the driver as a lonely figure estranged from his fellow men and his family. Mr. Hollowell's theme is what he calls "alienation" and defines as "the separation of man from what is meaningful to him and his inability to alter this state of affairs".

Mr. Hollowell rediscovers and weaves into his story the preference which most drivers show for independent hauliers as employers rather than State-owned transport. The driver's claim to be an expert, says Mr. Hollowell, is recognized notably in the smaller private firms when they call him an "individualist". He does not receive the same recognition from the "more mechanistically structured firms", which tend to be those employing the greatest number of drivers.

Paradoxically, Mr. Hollowell concludes, "it is his desire for freedom which alienates the lorry driver". He has no machinery which can help him persuade the public that he is an expert. He is separated from the wider society because "that society does not recognize the importance of his role". The claim as to the economic importance of his role is unchallengeable "but in his desire for freedom he has not created the agencies through which his claim may be presented".

The alienated lorry driver as he is represented here may not worry overmuch about the number of hours shown on his log sheet particularly if in any case he has to spend the night away from home. He is more likely to be concerned about the size of his pay packet and to be suspicious of any change which could have the effect of reducing his wages.


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