Craven Tasker cuts more
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• Trailer maker Craven Tasker has shut its two Scottish factories at Cumbernauld, dismissing production staff hired to replace striking workers in the summer (CM 1-7 Aug).
UK managing director Dennis Kenyon, formerly based at the company's Doncaster head office, has left, amid union claims that he too was dismissed.
Unions involved in the original dispute, which began in June, have vowed to continue picketing the Cumbernauld plant, They claim it still contains production machinery and could be reactivated.
The dispute started after Craven Tasker dismissed 42 production workers who went on strike on 7 June over a wage freeze — they were given until 13 June to return to work, or they would be deemed to have dismissed themselves.
When they did not return the company recruited 34 workers to replace them. These have now been dismissed along with seven apprentices and four office staff who were not part of the summer strike.
According to Bill Tynan, AEU mid-Lanark district secretary, the original sacked strikers are unable to appeal against their cases at industrial tribunals be cause legally the company was entitled to sack workers who were in breach of their contracts, provided the entire workforce was dismissed. However, two men who were on holiday at the time of the strike have tribunal hearings in February.
"Kenyon struck me as a reasonable man, but his hands were tied as far as this dispute was concerned," says Tynan. In August Kenyon told CM that the company was struggling to keep its workforce occupied at Cumbemauld — but at the time of the strike it had won orders for
300 trailers, including one for 200 trailers from a Londonbased firm.
GMB representative Billy McEwan says picketing of Cumbernauld will continue amid attempts to persuade Craven Tasker to discuss re-opening the plant. "There was no way the replacement workers could put out trailers of the quantity and quality required," he says.
The strikers have received the backing of 109 MPs.
Craven Tasker was unavailable for comment as CM went to press.