TGWU moves in as
Page 14
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Shell contracts out
• by Karen Miles The Transport and General Workers Union is set to approach the new bosses of Shell's tanker drivers in a move aimed at reversing eight years of union inactivity for the company's hundreds of drivers. The oil company is contracting out its distribution and will decide next month which contractor, or contractors, will take on Shell's 390 staff.
Management wants to switch the distribution of Shell fuels throughout the UK by July to the new operation, with the aim of cutting costs. Once the contractor is chosen, Danny Bryan, national secretary of the TGWU, hopes to recruit the drivers to the union and then discuss union recognition with their new management.
The government's soon-to-be introduced Employment Relations Bill will compel the management of companies where half the workforce belongs to a union to deal with that union. Shell is contracting out its road transport for fuels, bulk liquefied petroleum gas and bulk lubricants, its driver employment and management, its operations management and support, fleet engineering management and maintenance and terminal-based despatch.
Shell derecognised the TGWU in July 1992, severing its connections with the union. Shell says its distribution workers opted for staff, nonunionised, status. The union also wants to target Esso and Calorgas, which have also derecognised the TGWU.