FROM BEING a union overshadowed by big brother, the Transport
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and General Workers Union, the United Road Transport Union recently made the limelight in a two-month dispute over the minimum price of a loaf of bread.
. The dispute was finally settled last week.
General secretary Jackson Moore told CM this week: "There are two commodities that affect the whole of the Ipublic — milk is one, and bread is the other. Affect the price of that and you affect everyone," he said. "Once you have hit the limelight with a subject like that, it is difficult to get out of it," said Mr Moore.
And the union — whose general secretary once had a national newspaper's banner headline addressed to him: "Who the Hell is Jackson Moore?" — is now well known to the British public, and in particular, the housewife who buys the groceries.
URTU's row over the price of bread was finally settled in a compromise agreement with the Bakers' Federation on a three-point plan.
• Trouble flared when Mr Moore realised that his members' jobs could be jeopardised by the cutting of the price of bread.
Now the two sides have agreed on a plan which guarantees there will be no redundancies as a result of discounts offered by the bakeries to the supermarket chains selling bread.
The agreement also provides for a return to commercial trading for the bakers, which will mean that discounts on bread prices, taking the level below 18p, will come out of the supermarket profit margins. Under the third point, a private inquiry into the whole of the bread industry, with special reference to the transport and distribution areas, will be held in an attempt to prevent similar circumstances happening again.
Mr Moore told CM that his union's action stemmed from delays in arranging a meeting between the union and Prices Secretary Roy Hattersley, to discuss the lifting of the maximum discount level for bread.
"The whole crux of the problem was that we had been attempting to see the Minister since the end of November," said Mr Moore, -we needed to see him, to hear him explain how his wonder plan was going to work.
"When we did meet him it was very obvious that he was only human, and there was no secret formula that was going to make it work," he said.
From that first meeting, described by Mr Moore as "a non-event,' the union met the 240 representatives of the bakeries, and hammered out the new agreement.
"If we had met the Minister in December, everybody would have realised what a bloody stupid idea taking the maximum discount level off was," said Mr Moore.
"If there is any cheap bread about now, it will come from the supermarkets, and the discounts will come from their profit margin."
"It still won't do the houswife any good — I suppose they'll stick another penny on a tin of beans instead," he said.
Both the Prices Department and Mr Moore have emphasised there will now be no maximum discount level for bread, but the bakers are expected to be offering discounts of between 22 and 26.375 per cent, and there are suggestions of as much as 30 per cent discount.
-Now it will be a matter of commercial judgement. Aii these matters are .nack to being questions of judgement for the individuals involved in a particular transaction," said a Prices Department spokesman.
The action of the URTU drivers in refusing to deliver bread to shops selling at a price of 17p, later modified to 18p, kept many supermarket chains nationwide without bread.
Drivers in the South East and Scotland set themselves a minimum price of 19p, but received little support when the union's executive fixed the 18p minimum.
And the action brough a stern warning from the bakers last week when they said that unless there was an agreement by last Thursday, they would consider sacking drivers who continued to refuse to deliver to some shops.
Bakers' Federation director, David Duke-Evans commented: -Any continuation of the present uncertainty of supply, being experienced by retailers in some parts of the country, cannot be endured.
-If persuasion did not succeed, it could lead to action and sackings," said Mr Duke Evans.
Three weeks ago Mr Moore claimed a victory for his union when Mr Hattersley agreed to meet URTU. Now he has achieved his prime aims — job security for his members, and an inquiry into the industry; and there is still no maximum discount level.
The new agreement was given the Ministerial seal of approval last week, when the two sides met Mr Hattersiey. After they had reached their '• compromise, a spokesman commented: "this is what Mr Hattersiey wanted, a settlement within the industry.
it was the Baker's Federation who referred the drivers' dispute to the Government's Arbitration Conciliation and Advisory Services (ACAS) at the beginning of January, but even they failed in their efforts to find a solution.
As they referred the dispute, the Federation commented: -We do not accept that trades unions have the right or justification to attempt to dictate commercial policy in the way some of their members have been doing recently.'
This was smartly countered by URTU saying that it was the well-being of the drivers and the small shop keeper that it was concerned with.
URTU officials told CM that while the price of bread was cut dramatically by the supermarkets, the 'corner' shop was unable to compete, and was likely eventually to be pushed out of the bread market completely.
This in turn would cut the number of outlets for bread and the number of calls to be made on the delivery man's round, and hence the number of jobs available.
In Scotland, agreement was reached 24 hours earlier after a day of negotiations between the Bakers Federation, Scottish area and URTU representatives.
And as the whole dispute ended, Rank Hovis McDougall began preparations for Price increases on standard and large loaves of around a penny a loaf.
The news came as other bread retailers were preparing to drop their prices below the 18p minimum, even though most of the big baking groups seem determined not to drop their prices through increased discounts.
At present, the norm for the bakers discount seems to be depending on the size of the company. Smaller bakers were believed to be offering better terms, but the big groups have said that they could not top a 27 per cent discount, and they don't think the unions will tolerate that level of discount.