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A CRISIS meeting of major players in oil distribution is
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scheduled for next month in a bid to defuse mounting unrest among tanker drivers. The meeting at the Department ofTrade and Industry follows a year-long campaign to persuade employers to negotiate improved pay and conditions.
Transport & General Workers Union oil trades delegates will meet the following day to decide if enough progress has been made to avert industrial action. This could include a blockade of oil refineries similar to the one mounted by fuel protesters in September 2000.
John Roscoe, chairman of the T&G's oil trades delegates, says: "I don't want to be putting guns to people's heads prior to the meeting but it would be nice that they are aware that if they don't take it seriously there will be repercussions."
The DTI is believed to be sending out invitations to the meeting on 14 December in consultation with the T&G.Authorised distributors, contractors and supermarket retailers will be invited, along with oil giants such as Shell and BP Roscoe says a national forum to discuss grievances has always been a key objective of the campaign: "We were hoping to speak to all the relevant parties in the summer months but... they were not able to attend. We have laid our views out quite clearly. Nobody can say they are not aware whether it's the government or the employers."
He adds that if the campaign objectives were not taken seriously "it has always been the intention to respond accordingly". Frustration over the delay came to a head at a meeting of 50 T&G delegates last month (CM 21 October).
The campaign was launched following claims that pay and conditions for oil tanker drivers have been eroded since the oil giants began contracting out their distribution more than 20 years ago.