J1C's days may be umbered say union
Page 3
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
HAULAGE drivers' delegates were due to meet in London this ek to decide on next winter's pay claim, grave doubts were being pressed about the future of the recently established West Midds Joint Industrial Council, reports ALAN MILLAR.
lthough officials of both the nsport and General Workers ion and the Road Haulage Asciation believe that the ...11C is cessary for the future good of ustrial relations in the area, ss roots opinion on both es is less favourable.
GWU local officer Jim Hunt d CM that there is a ''clear ssibility" of the JIC's days benumbered, and he said that ch of its future must hang on outcome of the next pay und.
Mr Hunt said that those drivs who have received £83 for 40 )urs agreements in line with e Union's company-by-cornirty policy — the RHA esti mates that no more than 15 hire or reward hauliers have agreed such awards — feel that they would have got less if the JIC had succeeded in reaching agreement on the £81 figure offered by the employers.
And those who have received nothing feel that they would still have got nothing if the WO had settled for a higher figure.
RHA West Midlands area secretary Bob Ward, while clearly disappointed by the drivers' attitude, told CM that he nevertheless understood their pessimism.
But he warned: "I am convinced that the JIC will fall apart without an agreement on wages this year." And, while recognising that it was a "shortsighted approach" he said there were probably several West Midlands hauliers who would be "delighted" if that did happen.
Mr Ward added that, though the JIC has met formally only once since the breakdown of wage talks last winter, it has been able to resolve areas of disagreement on other matters, and he instanced a recent case in which an operator which had adopted a random approach towards redundancies had been put back on the right lines.
Birmingham drivers' representatives were going to this week's TGWU hire and reward conference determined to seek approval for a wage increase at least in line with the rate of inflation in November. Mr Hunt said that fewer operators are around this year to compete for the diminished pool of work, and they should be in a better position to claim higher rates and ay higher wages.
Mr Ward predicted that there could be problems ahead if the Union seeks to negotiate an increase from the £83 figure which it set last winter as its 1980/81 goal. "Most operators are not even paying f81," he said.