CONCILIATION BOARD'S FINDINGS SEVERELY CRITICIZED.
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SLASHING attacks on the findings of the National Conciliation Board were made at a mass meeting of haulage contractors in Bradford and district, held at Bradford on Monday last. Another important feature of the meeting was the passing of a resolution urging the extension of the system of stabilizing haulage rates by means of rates tribunals,
The meeting was held under the auspicss of the Bradford section of the Yorkshire Road Transport Rates Tribunal. Mr. Charles Holdsworth, of I. W. Holdsworth, Ltd., Halifax, who is chairman of the Bradford section, presided.
It is worthy of note that some of the outspoken critics of the National Conciliation Board's report are members of the Yorkshire Area Conciliation Board, including Mr. Holdsworth, who opened the attack. He said he did not deny that something should be done to regulate wages and conditions of service in the industry, but surely it should not be done in the way proposed. In his opinion, the report had been wrongly conceived. If the area boards had been set up first, and collat-d the whole of the information which it was possible to obtain, and if from these area boards a national board had been formed, then proposals which would have 'bum acceptable to the country could have been formulated.
It was said that the operation of the National Conciliation Board's findings had been postponed until January 1, but he did not like the word " postponed" because he thought that the findings should be altered altogether. At any rate, the industry had now an opportunity, which should be taken, to construct an alternative plan. Mr. Harold Goodwin, secretary. of Blythe and Berwick (1928), Ltd., of Bradford, who is also a member of the Yorkshire Area Conciliation Board, said that hauliers recognized the need for some kind of organized stability in the industry, and they would welcome some equitable and common-sense scheme.
Mr. Robert Barr, of Leeds, head of the Barr group of transport companies, criticized both the National Concilia tion Board and the trade associations. The effect of putting into operation the findings of the National Conciliation Board, he said, would be to increase hauliers' overhead charges to such an extent that it would be utterly impossible for them to operate a vehicle on long-distance workâand this was the traffic which the railway companies wanted.
On the subject of the stabilization of haulage rates by means of rates tri bunals, Mr. Holdsworth, the chairman, recalled the foundation of the rates tribunal in Bradford a year ago, and remarked that while he did not sug gest they had achierved 100 per cent. success, they had obtained a certain measure of success. They had certainly stabilized the rates for the transport of a number of commodities between the ports and tha Bradford district. Furthermore, cther sections of the Yorkshire tribunals had been formed in Leeds and Halifax.
Mr. G. E. Gilbey, chairman of the North-Eastern Division of the Commercial Motor Users f-ssociation, in moving a vote of thanks to Mr. Holdsworth and Mr. Goodwin, said he thought the idea of a National Conciliation Board being formed from the Area Conciliation Boards was gaining a good deal of ground.