Dockers win container stuffing battle
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by our industrial correspondent • An agreement signed this week by dockers, lorry drivers, port employers, road hauliers and the British Transport Dock Board should ensure industrial peace at the new £20m container depot planned for Southampton.
The effect of the agreement is that container stuffing and stripping will be carried Out by registered dock labour at the port; it could be the forerunner of similar agreements at all of Britain's container ports.
Following the agreement Taylor Woodrow Industrial Estates said that the work on the first phase of the development of a 150acre site would begin this summer.
A declaration of co-operation between the TGWU, the Road Haulage Association, the Docks Board and the Southampton Port Employers' Association lays down that "The movement of freight with pitticular reference to the container depot will be carried out with the maximum efficiency without interruption with the belief that it is in the best economic interests of all concerned."
A spokesman for the developers said that priority of tenancy Would be given to companies dealing with the port of Southampton and that a limited amount of space would also be available for distribution and warehousing. It is understood that rental will be about 80p per square foot.
The development will include a 12-acre lorry park owned by Hampshire County Council and leased to an operator. For lorry drivers there will also be a 300bedroom hotel claimed to be the first of its kind in the South of England.