Merseyside drivers go back
Page 26
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• The strike of 7,000 Merseyside lorry drivers ended on Monday after a back-towork vote at a mass meeting last Thursday. The strike had lasted three weeks.
The men agreed to go back so that the Transport and General Workers' Union could begin pay and productivity negotiations with individual employers. The TGWU warned that it will consider taking official action against firms which refuse to negotiate.
"They are going to roast us one-by-one over a slow fire", said one employers' spokesman.
The unofficial strike, led by the Liverpool lorry-drivers' branch, succeeded in getting £16 a week (for the 40-hour week) accepted as the basis for the new negotiations
But employers fear such agreements would be impossible under the new wages policy. A £16-a-week basic wage would involve rises of about 161, per cent for most drivers, compared with the wages ceiling of 3+ per cent advocated by the Government.
The employers are sceptical about the scope for productivity concessions which bridge such a large differential. There is just not room for that sort of productivity increase even in the most inefficient of haulage firms, they argue.
However, leading TGWU officials, including Mr. Ken Jackson, national haulage secretary, have taken up their claim.
Mr. Jackson said that talks with individual companies would be on the demand of £16 for the 40-hour week. But he added: "I have warned the men that no-one will get anything for nothing out of this deal. Higher productivity will have to be a condition of any agreement."
The first strike over the Liverpool formula began on Monday when none of Kirkdale Haulage's 88 drivers reported for work. The firm's gates were picketed. A spokesman said the company was prepared to talk on the £16 basis but there had been no suggestion from the men of higher productivity. Kirkdale already paid 15 per cent above the RHWC rates.