PIB ducking the issue, busmen's union
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OFFICIALS of the Transport and General Workers Union met Mr. Ray Gunter, Minister of Labour, on Monday, for further talks on the deadlock in the municipal bus industry, following the ending of the National Agreement with the Employers Federation (COMMERCIAL MOTOR, October 20). The possibility of reopening talks with the Employers Federation was one of the subjects discussed.
Mr. Larry Smith, of the TGWU, told CM on Tuesday that the union was prepared to meet anybody, at any time, in an attempt to settle the dispute. He felt, however, that the employers were likely to wait for a report from the Prices and Incomes Board on productivity in the bus industry —including London Transport and company buses. The report would have special reference to one-man buses.
Mr. Smith said that there was no point in waiting for the publication of the PIB report as the TGWU were after a straight settlement of £1 a week for all busmen. The PIB were likely to recommend an award of 15s.
The TGWU officials drew Mr. Gunter's attention to the threat by the busmen employed by 23 Lancashire municipal undertakings to withdraw their labour as from midnight on December 16, unless local agreements were reached. This action was likely to be copied in many other parts of the country. Mr. Gunter was also told of the situation at Southend, where the determination by Ald. Norman Harris, chairman of the transport committee and also chairman of the Employers Federation, to operate private buses in an attempt to keep services moving, was keeping the busmen out on strike. "The action of one man is preventing a settlement in Southend", Mr. Smith told CM.
Mr. Smith said that the TGWU made a case of the disparity between the three sections of the industry—London Transport, municipalities and companies. He asked "Will the PIB duck this issue again as it has done in the past?"
In the House last week, Mr. Gunter told the Commons that out of 91 municipal bus undertakings in membership of the Federation, 17 had been affected by strikes and 10 still were. A high proportion of the undertakings had been affected by bans either on overtime or on carrying standing passengers or both-46 undertakings were affected by such bans.
A settlement seemed likely to be reached in Nottingham, this week, where an offer was expected from the local council. Meanwhile the managing director of a Nottingham store had offered to pay the city's 1,400 busmen the £1 a week they were seeking if they would only return to work for the Christmas period. He said that his store was losing not less than £2,000 a day because of the strike.