Pay claim chaos: unions go for separate deals
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by CM reporter
WITH the threat of strike action on December 1 if acceptable pay increases have not been settled by then, hauliers in many parts of Britain this week were feeling the effect of the wages "prairie' fire generated by the Scottish pay settlement.
From Newcastle to Devon and Cornwall, employers and unions have been meeting, and in some cases tentative agreements have been reached; in others, negotiations are scheduled for today, Friday.
In the North West, the RHA. TGWU and URTU
have formulated a new scale of wages at area level which, if it is ratified at union .branch level, will become effective from .December I. This North West agreement is based on hgv licence classes, Drivers under 2 I will receive £27 per week basic; over 21 without an hgv licence £30; Class 3 licence £38; Class 2f39; Class! £40.
In the R HA Northern area the TGWU has negotiated with the 10 subareas and in each case has an agreement based on the Scottish settlement, with amendments. But the R HA area secretary, Mr Denis Le Conte, said that they could not possibly work on 10 separate agreements. The area was prepared to consider some form of "Scottish agreement' but felt that drivers over 21 who did not hold an hgv licence should not enjoy the same rate as those who did.
The splinter group of drivers in South Wales only served to delay negotiations in that area because, as reported in CM last week, the hauliers refused to meet them. The first official meeting between employers and
unions in South Wales was held yesterday (Thursday).
Southern area operators met on Tuesday and rejected a union claim which would have meant payments of between 50p and £1 per week higher than the Scottish settlement. Southern drivers were also claiming a guaranteed 50-hour week and guarantees of 51/4 hours overtime for both Saturday and Sunday.
At a private meeting in London on Tuesday, Mr Glyn Samuel, vice-chairman of the Transport Association and managing director of AM Walker Ltd of -Leicester, told members that it was not wage increases which were causing their problems so much as deflated haulage rates. Mr Samuel said that drivers should not be expected to work for the hourly rates which they had been paid in the past, that haulage rates must go up for customers and that all hauliers must stand firm. Later he told CM that if haulage contractors stood together on rates then they would be sure to get the rate that the job demanded, Mr E. J. Price, managing director of T. J. E. Price Ltd, of Cardiff, told the TA members that the latest wage negotiations were the greatest contributory factor to inflation that the country had ever known.