Wanted: a better talking shop
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Every time a regional labour dispute becomes heated, confused and personal it provides yet another reminder that the road haulage industry woefully lacks an effective national forum on labour matters. This situation is likely to persist for as long as the trade unions insist that Road Haulage Association members must be bound by decisions negotiated at national level and, in direct contradiction, the trade associations insist that they cannot dictate to their members. Has the time come for RHA members to consider whether they might have more to gain—not least a more stable industrial relations situation—than they would lose by accepting direction on this one aspect of their affairs?
The present fragmented system is readymade for eruptions, for divide-and-conquer actions and for leapfrogging or playing one against another. And not only by one party. The situation always provides the union side with an opportunity for taking the initiative, and seldom to the liking of operators.
The current upset in the West Midlands is a powerful reminder that regional disputes can often be concerned with matters of principal that have national significance and should be discussed at national level in a calm, businesslike atmosphere—not thrashed out militantly and inadequately at arm's length in a regional dust-up. If our biggest trade union has a case to state on bonus pay for holders of higy licences, let it make the case clearly and openly at national level. As things stand, hauliers cannot see why, having spent perhaps £100 to have drivers trained to test standards, they should be expected to pay a premium for a licence which is a legal requirement—like a normal driving licence. A similar situation is likely to arise with tachographs; the unions appear to be shifting their ground on this issue, Out just where they stand, and how much they are going to be asking for fitment of what, again, will eventually become a legal requirement, is still obscure. This affects more than R HA members; and now that the FTA has become involved in the affairs of the Wages Council, cannot the two trade associations make a new attempt to initiate national talks on licences and tachos and like issues, to forestall a situation in which the outcome of a local dispute is used as a yardstick for the whole country, perhaps with costly results?