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'Co-operation means peace'

13th May 1977, Page 61
13th May 1977
Page 61
Page 61, 13th May 1977 — 'Co-operation means peace'
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Jack Male lays it on the line

T WAS a ease of no punches milled at the Road Haulage fissociation annual dinner in London on Tuesday when .lhairman Jack Male told Cransport Minister William Rodgers that abolishing the Road Haulage Wages Council was a mistake, the new tax impositions were highly inflationary and restrictions on rates increases could lead to a mass exodus from the industry.

Making what was taken as a reference to the Transport and General Workers Union in general and TGWU regional commercial services group secretary Alan Law in particular, Mr Male. said: "I and my colleagues in the RHA desperately want to regard the proposals we have made for the future conduct of wage negotiations within our industry, as being an opportunity for achieving industrial peace, but this must depend to a considerable extent on the co-operation of others." (See p.4).

The RHA is proposing to become actively engaged in negotiating directly with the trade unions on behalf of its members.

"We earnestly hope that our worst fears of a continuous leap-frogging of wage settlements from one area to another are not realised."

The RHA national council, in recommending that the Association accepts responsibility for negotiating agreements directly with trade unions on an RHA area basis, and has emphasised that without such agreements members may have to deal individually with the unions, or face the possible effects of Schedule 11 of the Employment Protection Act.

This could mean an employer would have little or no say in the conditions which would apply to his employees because he would be required by law to accept conditions which had been decided by others.

Mr Male issued this warn ing: "We will do all we can to cultivate good industrial relations by discussion and negotiation, but I must emphasise that if the trade unions and work-people seek to enforce unrealistic and excessive demands they will do their industry irreparable harm and drive many a hard-pressed employer out of business."

He turned to finance and advised the Minister that. inflation at today's unprecedented level is at least in part a consequence of Government action.

"Inflation is destroying our ability to compete, and until it can be effectively mastered, any real chance of economic growth and prosperity will be stifled."

He said that the Chancellor's Budget decision to increase the tax on diesel fuel and road fund licences represented a serious reverse.

"We have told the Chancellor of the Exchequer that we regard this move as being highly inflationary and that we have no choice but to pass on these increases directly to our customers."

He said that Mr Healey's threat of further increases in goods vehicles taxation made him wonder how serious the Government was in its expressed wish to contain inflation.

Mr Male reinforced the views conveyed to Mr Rodgers last week in a letter from the RHA director-general.

Hauliers, he said, were unable to generate sufficient revenue to enable them to make reasonable provision for their replacement cost of their vehicles.

"Inflation is causing many of our members seriously to consider whether to throw in the towel or to try and struggle on with much reduced fleets of vehicles."

He told Mr Rodgers vehicle replacement costs over the past few years had been subject to massive price rises as manufacturers increased their prices every ninety days as a matter of course.

"It is becoming increasingly necessary for hauliers to be able to adopt a similar course of action. As it is, we are not able to reflect our capital replacement costs as a result of the limitations imposed on • us by the price code," he said.

"Unless we are able to increase our charges very substantially indeed, I predict that the road haulage industry as we know it today will not exist in a few years time.

"This prospect should not in any way be regarded as good news by those who oppose the very existence of a strong and viable road haulage industry, because we all know that there is simply no economic alternative to road transport.

"The choice facing our customers, and ultimately the housewife, is either a series of phased increases in road haulage charges to allow us to make proper provision for the capital replacement costs of our vehicles, or to let other transport modes carry the goods to our shops and ports. "There can be no doubting the inability of the railways to provide a suitable alternative to the movement of goods by road when one remembers that road transport at present accounts for almost 85 per cent of all goods moved in this country."

Mr Male claimed it would be of great help to the road haulage industry, in the short term, if they could have an increase in vehicle weights.

"Such an increase, in line with the EEC Commission's latest proposals, would allow much greater productivity to , be achieved," he said "and at the same time slow down the rate a growth in the number of road vehicles."

With a vehicle of 40 tonnes gross, a considerable saving in operating costs can be achieved, and such a vehicle, with no more than the present axle loading of 10 tons, would certainly cause no greater road wear than existing vehicles (CM April 22).

Mr Male warned that unless action is taken along the lines he indicated, the future viability of road goods transport, will be seriously threatened.


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