TGWU prepares for action over wages
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by Juliet Parish
• Midland union chiefs representing 8,000 drivers are threatening industrial action to force employers to resume pay negotiations. They want a deal similar to the 1.5.50-a-week rise agreed in Scotland last month (CM1-7 July).
Dennis Mills, general executive member of the Transport & General Workers Union, says: "The only reason the Scots got an increase was because they threatened to take industrial action against individual companies. Why should they get an increase and our drivers not?
"Indirectly around 22,000 drivers depend on the East and West Midlands PCs," he adds.
The Road Haulage Association
admits the threat of industrial action influenced Scottish hauliers,"But the Scots are very militant and I don't know if such a threat from English drivers would have the same effect," says Scottish manager Tom Brattin.
The two RHA district managers who liaise with more than 2,500 East and West Midlands hauliers covered by JICs say such threats will have no effect: "The JIC is a relic of the past—even companies covered by it are not legally bound to it," says RHA Eastern district manager Chris Wright.
His West Midlands colleague Mike Farmer says hauliers are unlikely to re-open JIC talks until there is an upturn in the economy.