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More North-east strikes?
Page 5
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NORTH-EAST ENGLAND drivers may take industrial action next month against any operator which refuses to concede their claim for an £83 basic pay for a 40-hour week.
Following the initial breach of Road Haulage Association-led resistance to any claim above the £80 deals reached in March (CM, June 6), Transport and General Workers Union delgates voted 30 to two in favour of recommending taking action against any operators which do not concede the £83 rate by July 1.
According to TGWU organiser Geoff Eggleston, that action would almost certainly be a strike, as any go-slow or workto-rule is unlikely to prove effective. A final decision will be taken later this month, by which time operators' intentions may be clearer.
He added that around 13 companies in the Newcastle area have already agreed the new rate, as part of a comprehensive agreement which also includes redundancy and disciplinary procedures which existed in few cases before. He added that the companies which had reached these agreements were the "bigger and more responsible" companies in the region.
But it is clear that the TGWU, which claims full support from the General and Municipal Workers Union and the United Road Transport Union in the area, is determined to alter the imprecise industrial relations machinery in the North-east.
Employers have resisted union requests that a joint industrial council be set up, and negotiations continue to cover groups of operators — somewhat loosely — in various parts of the region.
Now, the Union, which says that redundancies in hire or reward haulage in the area have stopped, appears determined to impose some form of bargaining structure with binding agreements. Mr Eggleston told CM, that, in the event of a failure to create a JIC, then at least assenting hauliers' groups could be tried instead.
Hauliers in Birkenhead have concluded at £82 for 40 hours wage agreement with the Transport and General Workers Union.
The deal, which affects between 15 and 20 operators, and also includes a 50p increase in subsistence pay to £9.75, is back-dated to January 1. A meeting between the two sides will be held to settle the arrangements for the back-dating.