National strike now looming at RMC
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• The National Owner Drivers Association (NODA) is meeting tomorrow (Friday 16 December) to vote on a national strike at RMC Readymix as the two sides prepare for their third week of dispute on Merseyside.
NODA is furious that nine of its members in Liverpool have had their accounts with RMC Readymix terminated without notice or consultation. Last week all NODA's 66 RMC owner-driver members in the North West came out in sympathy with their sacked Liverpool colleagues (CM 8-14 December).
"I'm sure that the delegates will vote for national action," says general secretary Mike Binns. "I wrote to RMC asking for copies of the disciplinary letters it had sent to the sacked drivers and for a meeting under the official grievance procedure — both have been denied," he says.
"The company told me that it would be inappropriate to send me copies of the letters it claims to have sent the drivers, because the dispute does not centre around a disciplinary matter. If this is not a disci plinary matter, I don't know what is."
Binns also says that the nine sacked drivers continue to maintain that they have never received any official warning letters from RMC. He dismisses RMC's offer of an "unofficial" meeting with its NorthWest regional director as an inadequate response to the situation.
Drivers in Liverpool have not been picketing RMC's Liverpool depot because the company only operates four vehicles there in addition to its owner-driver fleet. NODA says that concrete deliveries in the region are now "negligible" from RMC's point of view.