Drivers back action call
Page 16
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• Almost all 100 truck drivers at Linkman's Runcorn depot voted last week to take action over the tanker firm's bid to cut their pay by 25%.
Transport and General Workers Union members voted for action to strike and action short of a strike. An application is now being made to the TGWU general secretary for authority to take action.
Union representatives of drivers at Linkman's Batley depot in Yorkshire were due to meet with Linkman managing director Richard Kirby this Wednesday (12 August) to discuss a similar offer. The TDG subsidiary is negotiating separ ately at each of its nine sites.
TGWU Yorkshire commercial officer Maurice Britton says that if the situation is not resolved a ballot on industrial action is likely to be held there too.
Union officers are also to discuss with managers ways of cutting loss-making areas at another large Linkman depot, Middlesbrough. But the TGWU stresses that proposed pay cuts for the 100 drivers there will not be on the table".
Two depots have settled: drivers at Manchester have accepted a slight reduction in basic pay; staff at Linkman's Rotherham depot, which is dedicated to Croda, will have pay frozen for 18 months, but have been given a lump sum equivalent to a 5% rise.
0 Linkman is set to introduce random drug tests for its drivers, once its current pay negotiations are resolved. Its move follows the announcement last week that Wincanton will begin random tests on its 245 Texaco drivers after the oil giant said it was introducing spot checks for all its staff (CM 6-12 August). Shell and Esso also test drivers. Kirby says that Linkman is making the move without prompting from customers, although he admits: "a number of them have mentioned it".
0 See News Analysis page 17.