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Axial drivers in strike ballot
Page 10
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• by Guy Sheppard
More than 100 car transporter. drivers employed by Axial are to oe balloted on strike action folowing union claims they are facing a pay freeze.
The drivers earn between 130,000 and .£35.000 a year working for Axial UK, whose customers include Jaguar, Nissan, and Honda.
Ron Webb, national road transport secretary for the Thansport 8.e, General Workers Union, says shop stewards have been told there will be no response from the company to a pay claim this year.
He adds that drivers are also angry that an agreement on terms and conditions at one of Axial's sites is being dropped by the company. "One has to assume that they are striving to take costs down big time but in a ruthless way," he says. "It is the industrial relations of the madhouse and it is bringing us back to the jungle."
A company spokesman says termination of the terms and conditions agreement only applied to the Jaguar site in Coventry where deliveries are being transferred from road to rail later this year.
He could not confirm whether the company is refusing to negotiate on pay this year.
Axial was bought by Autologic from Tibbett and Britten almost a year ago. This soured industrial relations because a final-salary pension scheme was replaced by a money purchase scheme in which pensions are dependent on stock market performance.
The ballot on industrial action including strike action is due to begin on Monday (18 March); the result is due to be announced later this month.