LINES OF BATTLE
Page 13
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• It comes as no surprise that the frustrations of stranded lorry drivers have boiled over into action on the ferry docks this week. To be left on the dockside to watch present cargoes and future business rot and wither has got to be one of the worst fates to befall any driver or owner driver. To have to watch such goings-on in the knowledge that the dispute which has led to this situation arising is probably pointless, and certainly unnecessary, is even worse.
It is, of course, understandable that P & 0 Ferries — at the heart of the whole dispute — has chosen to make its stand on manning now, before it gets involved in head-on competition with the channel tunnel. It is equally understandable that the seamen's union has chosen this time to resist those moves, in the firm knowledge that its bargaining position will be weakened by the arrival of the tunnel.
To understand is not, however, to forgive. These two warring parties might each view the other as being bent on suicide, but to the haulier caught up in the resultant mess both sides seem bent on homicide — the homicide of the haulier. If ever the channel tunnel promoters dreamt of a public relations coup which would reduce hauliers' mistrust of the tunnel, they could not have forseen that it would be the ferry operators and the seamen who would do that for them.
Whether or not the ferry parties realise it, they have shown enormous contempt for their most important customers through this childishlyconducted dispute. That does not justify what the stranded drivers have done in blockading ports, endangering their own livelihoods.
If there is any good to come out of this, it must be simply in the message being rammed home to the rest of the country that what is going on on the South Coast is not a ferries dispute, but senseless disruption of the country's transport and its economy by those involved with ferries.
With any luck no more drivers will be fired or disciplined for their actions; what they have done is not right, but it has been done for the right reason — to force reason into the action of others. Let's hope it works.