• Drivers turn the ;crew on pay round
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VERS have started a backlash against employers' hard line on le negotiations. On Merseyside, they are imposing a 31mph ad limit, and in the East Midlands they are threatening to withw from the Joint Industrial Council. ALAN MILLAR reports.
.ransport and General rkers Union organiser Bob iinson told CM that Mersey) men have rejected an offer in extra £3 plus 50p subsise which would have taken weight drivers' basic pay up £81 plus £10 subsistence. y have told their negotiators to attend any more meetings I the employers improve r offer.
nd the 1,200 drivers covered the Merseyside agreement e decided to abide strictly by r 1980 agreement which inles a 31mph maximum drivspeed. Mr Robinson said this ays has been branch policy, will now be enforced.
e added that, on an eightr driving day, this will limit icles to 248 miles per day, will add to employers' costs.
the East Midlands, TGWU aniser Clive Johnson said week that he was writing nally to the Road Haulage ;ociation, giving three -Eths' notice that it wants the rt Industrial Council to be )anded.
us follows the employers'. sal last week to increase r earlier offer of an £80 basic for Class 1 drivers, with
£9.25 subsistence, Mr Johnson said his members felt the £80 rate would take East Midlands drivers from a position near the top of the wage ladder to somewhere closer to the bottorn, and he states now that the union will seek individual agreements with operators.
"We will go back to the jungle," he said, and added that he was disappointed that a good relationship which existed until now between the Union and employers was being destroyed. Employers are expected to discuss the move next week.
Problems may also be brewing in the Greater Manchester area, where employers have rejected a Union request that the Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service be brought in to settle the argument over employers' sticking to a E3 across the board and 50p on subsistence offer.
The £83 Scottish settlement continues to act as a magnet to those areas which have still to settle wages, and it is likely to crystallise as the goal when West Midlands drivers' shop stewards meet later this month to discuss the impasse on negotiations there.
Their attitude is also bound to be coloured by a deal which gives the 150 drivers operating out of Birmingham's Perry Bar container terminal a basic wage of £83 plus £4 supplement. They retain their 55-hour guaranteed week, have their overnight subsistence raised by £1 to £10.50, and "dark" money raised from 50p to 53p per hour.
The container drivers are also. having sickness benefit improved, and are being given £40 a week accident benefit for up to 52 weeks.
Amidst all the gloom, East Anglian employers have agreed a £3 a week increase on basic pay, which gives top weight drivers £80. As last year, subsistence is being increased in two stages, by 25p now to £9.25, and from July 1 by another 25p.