Hauliers are still blocked
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HAULIERS who flouted picket lines during the threemonth steel strike are still being blacked in certain areas despite the British Steel Corporation claim that there is no blacking, reports MIKE RUTHERFORD.
A South Yorkshire haulier told CM that he is still being blacked although BSC workers have returned to work, but both BSC and the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation maintain that the plants are now operating normally.
A BSC spokesman in Rotherham said there are no problems with the transport of steel from plants. The ISTC says that all plants are working normally and a working party between management and unions is expected to solve the blacking problem.
The South Yorkshire haulier told CM that up to 30 local haulage companies are still being blacked. "BSC management is looking for an easy way out — they are looking for a scapegoat. Virtually all blacking is due to the crossing of picket lines before the strike was official and we are being blacked by local stewards rather than national officials."
And in Scotland, Thomas Greer of Holytown, Motherwell, said that until the outcome of a local meeting between unions and management, the company is not attempting to operate. It feels that even if it wanted to, it would not get into a steel plant until the situation changed.
An ISTC official in Rotherham, Joe Pickles, said that everything is back to normal although meetings are taking place at all works on the question of blacklists. Mr Pickles is not aware of any blacking in the region although he admitted that he cannot control more than 20,000 members.