Contractors warn of strike after rate row
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by Juliet Parish • Hauliers working for shipping and container agent Bell Lines of Avonmouth plan to repeat last week's stoppage unless Bell scraps a new payment scheme which will cost them up to £55 per week per track.
Under the scheme hauliers will no longer be paid for a job according to the radial band they fall in. Instead the company is proposing a pay-by-the-mile system, worth 78p/mile loaded and 70p/mile empty. The hauliers do not object to the scheme in principle, but they want loaded and empty rates of 84p and 76p/mile.
At least 10 Bell subcontractors parked their vehicles up from Monday last week in protest at the company's plan. On Wednesday 2 March Bell said they could work on their old rates for a month: the contractors were on the verge of calling off their dispute when Bell also announced a plan to drop four hauliers.
Bell claimed that Abergavenny-based ER Clissold; Shrewsbury-based Swains of Stretton; Mick Lawrie of CrickhoweII; and Mike Kirby of Hereford were missing delivery deadlines. Swains has worked for Bell since 1965 and says that six of the eight late deliveries it made in the past 15 months were the fault of Bell Lines' planning.
However the other hauliers backed down and returned to work for Bell Lines by Monday this week, because their own business es were at risk after losing revenue during last week's strike.
One, Shropshire-based CI Morris Transport, has already lost around £17,000 by laying up 14 trucks last week. Owner Jim Morris was one of the last hauliers to go back to work for Bell Lines this Monday: "It's a great shame for the four that the group went back," he says, "But there's no point staying out on your own, you will get nothing done."
However the hauliers are warning Bell Lines of further action unless it considers their rates proposals.
Newport-based John Beynan Evans & Sons says there is a "big possibility" of further action. The protesters included Newport-based Mark Pocknell; Madeley, Shropshire-based RF Lewis Transport; Newport-based Roamer Haulage; Newportbased Bevan & Sons; Lloyds of Ludlow; Newport-based Courteney Fox; and Newport-based WTS Transport.