Bus strikes —
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in, out and pending
from our industrial correspondent
• Municipal busmen at Newcastle upon Tyne who have been on strike for a fortnight following the recent PIB report on their pay deal decided to resume work last weekend. Mr. Alan Thomson, TGWU national secretary, addressed a mass meeting in Newcastle on Friday.
This led to the back-to-work decision. But the busmen have warned that they will strike again if their £1-a-week rises are not implemented o n July 26, the end of the Govern mentimposed "freeze" Order.
The strike of 3,400 Liverpool busmen still continued, however, into its tenth week. And 900 Hull busmen stopped work over a reorganization of services.
The Hull men are complaining that their overtime earnings will be cut by the new schedules which are being introduced by the City corporation to save money. The Hull undertaking is expected to show a deficit of £300,000 this year.
The corporation transport committee met on Tuesday but it was not expected to make any offer to the busmen. In stopping work, the 840 drivers and conductors are understood to have ignored the advice of union officials.
Mrs. Barbara Castle, Minister for Employment and Productivity, urged the Liverpool strikers to return to work. In a series of Commons exchanges—some of them angry—she appealed for an end to the strike, saying that she expected the PIB to let her have a report on the 23 s-a-week Liverpool bus pay deal next week. The award was referred to the Board on March 1. But the busmen have since been demanding £.16 a week basic rate and more than 400 have resigned since the strike started. Union officials attended a meeting of the unofficial strike committee on Monday and urged a return to work so that negotiations can be reopened. A decision was to be taken at a further mass meeting on Wednesday.
In London last week, national delegates considered the PIB verdict that a national deal for 77,000 municipal busmen did not conform to wages policy and heard that the Government had imposed a further three month "freeze" on the agreement. They decided against an immediate national strike, but warned that one was likely if the rises were further delayed after July 26.
They decided, too, that union officials should press for the rises to be backdated to December 1967 when the agreement was signed; and that negotiations should be sought with the employers on the pay of garage staff following the recommendations by the PIB.
The busmen agreed that the employers and unions should set up a working party on producivity. But, until they get their 11 rises, they will not co-operate in extensions of one-man buses.
If the Government decides to introduce further legislation to block the deal, the delegate conference instructed union officials that it must be recalled immediately.