New Year strikes: guidelines waver
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PROSPECTS for Christmas looked bleak this week as strike threats hung over both oil companies and Scottish operators over pay claims.
In Scotland the Road Haulage Association is standing by its insistence that it cannot break the Government's five per cent pay guidelines.
And it says that its hands are tied by the Price Commission report which said that the industry was inefficient.
Transport and General Workers Union officials are still waiting for the results of a ballot on the question of an all-out strike in Scotland from January 3.
And already there has been endorsement of the strike call from Glasgow drivers. A union official told CM this week that a final decision is not expected until just before Christmas.
It is unlikely that there will be any further talks before Christmas and this must reduce the chances of averting the strike.
A Road Haulage Association spokesman said this week that the association could do nothing until formal notification from the union is received.
The gloom of the Scots was reflected by a union official who added: "We'll need something to cheer us up on the picket line." Meanwhile negotiations at both Shell and Texaco are on the verge of breakdown as the men are still claiming in the region of 40 per cent. But both companies are making efforts to stay within the five per cent guideline but their position has not been helped by a new 11 per cent deal negotiated by Mobil which includes a six per cent productivity allowance. Union officials at Mobil have recommended that the men accept the 11 per cent offer.
Hopes of a solution to the deadlock at Shell and Texaco depend on a national meeting due to take place next week but if this meeting ends in a breakdown of talks then the country can look forward to a repetition of the fuel queues of February this year.
Emergency plans to keep essential services supplied with fuel do exist but no one is prepared to comment on what they are. The tanker drivers are due to strike from January 3 unless a settlement is reached in the meantime.