Anti-blacklist tactics
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IF OTHER socialist councils follow the example of Oxford and compile a blacklist of hauliers who have crossed miners' picket lines, they should be punished. This is unfair trading and political bigotry at its worst. The ratepayers of Oxford and those of other similarly motivated councils will be the losers.
If Arthur Scargill uses undemocratic dictatorial tactics to fight the National Coal Board, are not the NCB and its customers entitled to employ more civilised tactics to solve the subsequent problems? Of course they are.
The Oxford tactics could be extended to blacklist operators who deliver goods to stores other than Co-operative stores. That is how such people think.
If the council persists with this act of crass stupidity, the road transport industry, in an act of solidarity, could hit back and hard.
Those not on the blacklist could find the way open to quote exorbitant rates for their services; demand a contract with a down payment of 50 per cent up front; require full payment within 28 days of invoice; and insist on guaranteed minimum payment. Town halls are not geared for this type of enterprise.
The alternative is for operators to blacklist Oxford Council. This short, sharp treatment would very soon bring these part-time politicians to their senses.
What with the GLC's proposed lorry bans and the Oxford blacklist, it is high time that road transport operators taught them and other like-minded local authorities a lesson they will not easily forget.