Workers Control Future of Bus Industry
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BECAUSE of the high cost of wages— representing 70 per cent. of total working expenses—the future Of the bus industry lay largely in the hands of the workers, Mr. J. S. Wills, chairman of B.E.T. Omnibus Services, Ltd., told the shareholders on Monday.
He believed that harmony could be achieved. He was convinced that a great majority of the workers knew when it was in its true interests to take extreme measures and when it was not. He hoped that the union leaders, too, would have regard to the true interests of the workers. A great deal of tact and patience in negotiation would be necessary, but he was sure that good sense would prevail.
During the 34 years in which he had been engaged in wage negotiations he had never found a satisfactory method of settling the right level of wages, either absolutely or relatively.
Although it had been criticized by both employers and employees, arbitration, in default of agreement, was the most satisfactory solution, and it should be observed. Arbitration decisions should be accepted, whether they were liked or not. Much damage had been caused to the excellent relations in the bus industry by the unions' decision last year to withdraw from the 18-year-old system of voluntary arbitration.
Mr. Wills said that the B.E.T. associated companies were still carrying many more passengers than before the 1939-45 war, but the tide was on the turn and he did not know how far it might recede. The provincial bus strike last year and the London bus strike had shown how remarkably independent of public transport a large part of the population could be.
A further contraction of unremunerative services, accompanied by some hardship, was inevitable, and was largely the result of penal taxation. The question which gave the greatest cause for anxiety, however, was whether the industry could surmount any further increase in costs without pricing itself out of the market. Costs again rose last year.
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