- yneside wage offer
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ESIDE hauliers took trades union negotiators by surprise last when they offered a small increase in basic pay, but it may not lough to buy peace.
hough the Road Haulage elation would not confirm iize of the offer made on If of Tyneside and Hexham 3tors, Transport and GenWorkers Union organiser ff Eggleston said it Jnted to £3 on top of the £80 weight basic and £1 on the bsistence payment.
3 TGWU, along with the id Road Transport Union General and Municipal .ers Union, wants a £100
rate, a 35-hour working , and £12 subsistence. Alpi the two sides have ?d to have further talks later month, Mr Eggleston said was pessimistic about his bers being prepared to 3t the offer.
said he had consulted t a third of his 4,500 memin the area, and said that eaction he has had from confirms his view that the will be rejected. If that hap and there is no further offer at the next meeting, it will be referred back to TGWU national secrtetary Jack Ashwell with a view to taking industrial action.
That, according to RHA area secretary Denis Le Conte, was precisely what the employers hoped to avoid by making an early offer. He told CM that the employers suspected that the unions wanted the claim to lie on the table, and added that they also wanted to settle as early as possible in order to process rates increases before the end of the winter.
His view that many operators are in dire financial straits and "hanging on by a cotton thread" is shared by Mr Eggleston, but the union officer is still convinced that the industry would be better off without up to 25 per cent of the operators if they cannot afford more than a £3 wage increase.
"I feel that if they cannot afford it, it is because they are so busy cutting each others' throats. If some hauliers go out of business, then they'll go out with my blessing," he said, and added that this view is shared "more or less" by his members.
Teesside drivers submitted a claim in line with the Tyneside claim on Monday this week.
TGWU Middlesbrough organiser John Yates told CM that, if there is no settlement at a meeting next month, he will register a failure to agree, and refer the matter to national level with a view to canvassing members' opinion of holding a national haulage strike.
The TGWU has submitted a claim to. York and District operators, calling for a £100 basic pay, a £15 overnight subsistence payment, and £1 meal allowance, but no reduction in the working week. Both sides are due to meet next month.
There is little sign of progress in negotiations in the Eastern and West Midlands area, where both sides met again last week. In neither area have the employers made an offer yet and West Midland TGWU officer Jim Hunt conceded that the state of the haulage industry is making it difficult to achieve any results yet.
RHA national chairman Ken Rogers warned negotiators last week that all pay increases will have to be self-financing, because of the recession.