Wincanton warns port authon
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EARLIER THIS week 52 per cent of Britain's ports were strike bound, 46 per cent working and the remainder still undecided. The country's two largest ro-ro ports will know their fate today (Tuesday), after the dockers have voted.
The Transport and General Workers Union has said that the strike is official but in a number of places their members were incensed that they had been refused the right to vote. A one-man campaign at Tilbury led to the reversal of the TGWU official line when 695 men out of 700 voted to keep the normally militant Tilbury docks working. The ETA, RHA and the CBI acknowledge that the strike — the second in two months will cause some disruption. However, hauliers engaged in export traffic expect to be able to cope through the working ports.
If Dover and Felixstowe dockers decide to work on, then a substantial amount of traffic will continue to move. One large operator has warned a port authority of the effects on his traffic after the strike, should it be disrupted now.
Wincanton Group issued an ultimatum to Ian Roberts, Director of the Poole Harbour Authority on Tuesday, to the effect that unless supplies of their timber, for use by Wincanton Engineering, currently held at that port, due to the industrial dispute, are not released within four days (le Tuesday, August 28) it will withdraw it's custom from the port.
Currently, Wincanton imports 100,000sqm of timber from Portugal by sea every fortnight through Poole. It is used in the manufacture of wooden pallets by Wincanton Yonder Hill — a division of the Wincanton Engineering Group based near Chard, Somerset.
"We are not prepared to put the jobs of our own workforce at risk," stated David Yeomans, managing director of the Wincanton Group. "We have informed our agents and the Line's agents, John Carter of Poole, and the Poole Harbour Authority that unless the situation is resolved by Tuesday of next week and our timber is released we will have no option but to use an alternative import port after the current industrial docks dispute is settled. I estimate that our business accounts for at least 10 per cent of the port of Poole's import business, and whilst we do not wish to affect that port's productivity, I am primarily concerned with the welfare of my own group employees and am not prepared to see their future put into jeopardy," he said.