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Tippermen: We're on the road to ruin
Page 6
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Tensions are high at a Leicestershire quarry, where owner-drivers
are nose to nose with strike breakers. Roger Bushby reports.
Exclusive!
HAULIERS WORKING at Lafarge's Mountsorrel Quarry in Leicestershire, say they are "heading for financial ruin" because of a new payment system.
The row erupted into strike action on Monday (10 May) when over 40 owner-drivers staged a blockade with their vehicles.
Talks between the two sides ended in deadlock, with the company bringing in outside hauliers on Monday and -iliesday.
The hauliers claim Lafarge has threatened to tear up their contracts if they try to turn any of the outside hauliers away. There are claims that the blackleg hauliers are being paid £650 a day. In an exclusive statement to Commercial Motor, the drivers say: "We have asked Lafarge for
help with escalating running costs and the removal of their 'special mileage scheme', which in plain English means cut rates. These requests have been met with a complete lack of understanding and we are all gradually heading for financial ruin.
"To keep our businesses we require a minimum pay increase of 3% on all rates, linked to the removal of special mileages, and to be paid sand and gravel at [the higher] stone rates."
The hauliers are threatening to escalate the action by preventing cement trucks from entering or leaving the site.
Lafarge says: "We feel that the action by a number of hauliers is hasty and unfortunate. We are still in... negotiation and this kind of protest benefits nobody."