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South Yorks
33-VEHICLE operator at Halfway, near Sheffield, was taken yver this week by the South Yorkshire PTE as the first stage a policy of acquiring 16 indeendent operators in its area. [he PTE paid £304,000 for the )usiness of Booth and Fisher :Motor Services) Ltd. the company or its employees, though attention was drawn to two minor infringements of the regulation's committed by two drivers.
The dispute began more than five months ago when Mr Law rejected a pay deal agreed between Atkins and its drivers, but Mr Atkins Claimed this week that the pay and hours issues were really a smokescreen for the union's real objections. " Tachographs are the real issue—and there is no way we are going to take them out," he said. The company has had the instruments fitted for a number of years without comolaints from its drivers.
When CM tried to contact the TGWU this week Mr Law was unavailable, Mr Cliff Small, its Derby representative was on holiday and a spokesman at Nottingham declined to comment. So far Atkins has received no indication that that the blacking—affecting its ooeration to container terminals at Birmingham and Leeds— is likely to be lifted. It has kept its 60-vehicle fleet on the road by doing less profitable farm work instead of the lucrative container 'haulage in Which it has specialised. But this cannot go on, says Mr Atkins. He has told the shop stewards at the company that unless the action is stopped by the end of this month between six and 12 drivers will have to be laid off.