I suspect NNC may soon fold up, says TGWU's Mr. Alan Law
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By JOHN DARKER responsibilities are much wider—is Mr. Alan Law, regional trade group secretary of the Transport and General RHAPS the best known trade unionist in the road transport industry—excluding Mr. Frank Cousins, whose Workers' Union.
Mr. Law's writ in the road haulage field extends over 10 counties in the Midlands. He is assisted by a number of regional officers who handle many negotiations on their own but Alan Law is usually a key figure in any major dispute involving drivers or platform staff in the Midlands.
A settlement of the most recent incident— the "no bonus" strike at certain BRS depots in Birmingham—was announced only last week when the union accepted that the strict criteria laid down by the Prices and Incomes Board must form the basis of any new productivity bonus arrangement.
Mr. Law and the famous "Birmingham Differential" are as closely associated as the Beatles and "Hard Day's Night". The Millichamp arbitration award, he reminded me, had in effect put 34s. 6d. a week in the pocket of every road haulage worker in Greater Birmingham and the Black Country.
The BRS drivers' "no bonus" dispute— primarily brought about by the recession in the car industry—represented another manifestation of what might be termed the "Birmingham differential complex".
Mr. Law showed me a schedule of road haulage earnings in Birmingham comparing various vehicle carrying capacities and gross pay of drivers for standard and overtime hours. For the basic 41-hour week the 10-15-ton rate (R.H.84 plus 30s. Birmingham differential plus 15 per cent) yielded £15 5s. 3d. compared with £13 15s. 3d. earnings possible with BRS for a 41-hour week.
Perhaps significantly—for road haulage earnings excluding overtime are generally ludicrously low—the trade union schedule was endorsed to show comparative earnings for from 55 to 68 hours a week: the "Brum Rate" for 55 hours of £23 Is. Id. compared with a BRS figure of £20 15s. I Id. Not surprisingly, the possible earnings difference for a 68-hour week was almost £3.
I asked Mr. Law if he had felt frustrated by the "freeze" in pay claims. "Not so much as you might imagine," he replied. "We saw the freeze coming and I'm pleased we succeeded in nego
tiating a large number of pay increases in road haulage firms in my area; when the clamp down came there were very few outstanding claims.
"From my point of view the situation on July 6 last year was as satisfactory as could be expected —nearly all of my people were earning 30 per cent above basic national minimum rates. Transport workers elsewhere are a lot worse off."
Bearing in mind that some TGWU headquarters officers hold strongly that differential variations in pay are wrong in principle, I asked Mr. Law what line he would take if he were a national trade union officer. His reply Was blunt: "I would insist as I do now on the necessity for local differentials. It's simply not fair to consider that rates acceptable to Stornoway should apply to Birmingham. It's a ridiculous conception.
"You'd never convince drivers in Birmingham that there was no case for a differential. How do you explain to a driver who knows that Gallahers, for example, pay 70s. a week above basic to their Birmingham drivers that national rates must apply?"
Unrepentant
I asked him to comment on the suggestion that he had exploited the Millichamp award indiscriminately. He was unrepentant. "In a number of cases," he told me, "we made agreements whereby existing plus payments were extinguished when employers agreed to meet claims based on the Millichamp award. In other words. I think the criticisms have misfired."
"You must know that many road hauliers' rates are unreasonably low," I suggested. "What do you tell employers when they say they simply can't afford to pay above national minimum rates?"
He responded vigorously: "I tell them frankly they've no right to be in business. I've no sympathy with firms who let themselves get in this position. Often the cause is the cupidity— nothing less—of the haulier's customer who will haggle unmercifully to get cut haulage rates without any thought for the national economy."
I countered this argument. "Surely," I suggested, "many firms requiring professional transport would disagree? They would argue that the national interest—and their customers' interests —were served by low haulage rates?"
Mr. Law was nonplussed. "It's a vicious circle", he said. "Probably the answer is complete nationalization—but that involves a standard rate of pay nationally, which I disapprove of: it's a cleft stick."
I asked him if there were many remaining anomalies in pay rates in his territory. "The position is unbelievable", he replied. "BRS acquired transporter firms where up to £7 10s. Od. a week bonus was being earned—basic rates, too, at some acquired firms were £3 to £4 a week more than the established BRS men were paid.
"There are anomalies, too, in subsistence payments. The average in Birmingham is 27s. 6d. but 23s. is paid by some employers. Disparities of this kind obviously cause disquiet among drivers generally, not only those employed by BRS."
"What are the prospects of the National Negotiating Committee getting securely established this year?" I queried. "I don't see it being very effective", he replied. "The pattern is emerging. I say categorically that the RHA bully, repeat bully, small member firms into adhering to procedure agreements but large hauliers bully the RHA into impotence.
"The big firms dominate the RHA, and union claims that agreed procedures should be followed in every instance are treated with contempt. The disputes involving Davis Bros. Haulage Ltd., I. and A. Smith of Maddiston Ltd., and, more recently, Merseyside Transport Ltd., illustrate my point. The provisions under clause 12 C of the agreement, calling for the status quo to be preserved pending negotiated settlement, were blatantly ignored.
"I've absolutely no confidence in the NNC. I suspect it may fold up quite soon."
I asked Mr. Law if he felt that a better climate would be generated in the Midlands if personnel and industrial relations services were developed in the private sector of road transport. "What would be your reaction if groups of firms shared in the services of skilled personnel officers, industrial psychologists, and so on?" I inquired.
His reply, I thought, was revealing: "The private hauliers would never agree to anything like this. I wish, sincerely, that they would do so. Grouped personnel services in the road haulage industry would meet a crying need. It would make my job very much easier, and I would support any such move wholeheartedly".
Finally,! put to Mr. Law my 64-dollar question: "Do you push your militants or do they push you?"
He laughed. "Boy, that's a corker. Brother, I don't need any pushing. I've been in road haulage as a driver and trade union organizer all my life.! know where the boot squeezes. Anyway, if you doubt who does the pushing, ask the lads."