Yorkshire Move Against Still Higher
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Wages
OPPOSING the latest application for an increase in the wages of road haulage workers employed by A and B licence holders, the Federation of Yorkshire Road Transport Employers adopted a resolution on, September 7, in Leeds, which expressed the view that .wages nationally should not be dictated by the situation at the ports.
. The application in question—on which the Road Haulage Central Wages Board did not reach a decision at its meeting last week—is understood to have followed an application in which Liverpool haulage workers asked employers in that port for an increase in wages, following wages increases to dock workers and warehousemen.
The national wages increase granted to road haulage workers last May was also preceded by a local application at Liverpool, and on that occasion the Liverpool employers' conference con'ceded, an increase before the question had been considered nationally—a course which, it was afterwards suggested, badly prejudiced the national negotiations. This time, however, the Liverpool employers' organization is reported to have declined to grant an increase in wages before the question is dealt with nationally.
Pointers of the Pesolution The resolution which the Federation of Yorkshire Road Transport Employers adopted last Saturday argued that the trade union side should. not be allowed so to take advantage of the position at the ports thaft a small percentage of the total road haulage transport of the country (the resolution put this percentage at approximately 10) could be used as a lever to force the remaining 90 per cent, of the industry to capitulate to demands for repeated wages increases, " especially as the high wages already paid are out of all proportion to those in other industrial,''
One of the points which the York§hire resolution made against a further increase was that approximately 40 per cent, of the men driving goods vehicles before the war are now serving in the Forces, and "a very high percentage of the hundreds of drivers who have taken their places cannot possibly give
service of an equal economic value to the employer, because they cannot normally have had the necessary experience to give such service."
The resolution also suggested that if the application be granted it would place A. and B-licence holders in a still worse position by enabling C-licence holders to make further inroads on the legitimate " hire or reward " business, in the absence of machinery for enforcing on the C-licence holder observance of the high statutory wages paid by A and B-licence holders.
"It would be an encouragement to employers to agree increases," remarked the resolution, " if the workers' side would propose. ways and means whereby their expressed willingness to render assistance in bringing about an increase in the rates for the transport of goods generally could implemented as an offset against increases in wages."
Employees Satisfied In the discussion which culminated in the adoption of the resolution, Mr. W. Aldon (Harrogate) voiced surprise that the application had been put forward at this juncture, and remarked that all his employees were satisfied.
Mr. G. Dixon, of Smith and Robinson (Leeds)-, Ltd., asked if it was possible for the employers to appeal to an independent court, Mr. Harry Clark, secretary of the Federation, said it was impossible to go outside the machinery laid down in the Road Haulage Wages Act, Mr. Frank Thompson, of Leeds, who presided, emphasized that the matter should come before the Area Wages Boards as well as the Central Board. If, as on the last occasion, the Area Boards be not consulted, the procedure would lose all democratic principle.
A woman member of the Federation, Mrs. Borrowdale, of Borrowdale and Co., Ltd., Leeds, said the fact that employers' protests concerning wages had not been successful in the past indicated the need for drastic steps.
It was decided to send copies Of the opposition resolution to the Secretary of the Central Wages Board and to officials of the employers' and workers' panels of the Board.