RHA Scottish area urged. . .
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Withdraw from wages council: make agreements with drivers
• While relations between hauliers and the Transport and General Workers Union in Scotland are generally good, there is a danger that they will break down unless union officials are given the power to ratify agreements at the conclusion of negotiations. This opinion was expressed at the annual conference of the Scottish area of the Road Haulage Association, in Peebles at the weekend.
Mr G. T. Fraser immediate past chairman of the Scottish area and its representative on the National Industrial Relations Committee, told the 200 delegates that while union officials had the power to negotiate wage increases and changes in conditions of service, they all too frequently were coming back after the negotiations had been completed to say that their members had refused to accept the increases or the changes in their conditions.
Mr Fraser said that the situation had now reached such a pitch that he was making in-company agreements with his drivers. "I suggest that you get down to the shop floor and thrash the agreements out with your men," he said. A great deal of time was saved by dealing directly with drivers and he never once had had a rejection of an agreement after it had been reached in this way.
Mr Duncan Adams, another delegate, called on the Association to withdraw from the Road Haulage Wages Council. "There is no good reason why we cannot do this," he said. "The trade union has already withdrawn."
Mr Adams pointed out that this would allow the RHA to negotiate national wage agreements as an Association. It could not do this at the moment as a member of the Road Haulage Wages Council.
Mr Adams was concerned that some hauliers were breaking local agreements almost as soon as they were made and at a time of driver shortage it meant that these people were able to get the pick of the market. Such operators could not be disciplined since the agreements "are binding in honour only".
Mr T. Wilkie, the conference and Scottish area chairman, voiced concern over the Association's public image. He felt that much could be done by operators to improve their image by coming off the defensive and attacking those who would criticize them, by placing the facts of road haulage before the public.
Mr G. T. Fraser called on delegates to consider how best they could put across the hauliers' story and suggested that a fund be established to support a public relations campaign on a larger scale than anything previously envisaged.
Mr Graham Russell took up the theme of pirate operation and called for stricter enforcement. "There are insufficient enforcement officers and consequently too little enforcement," he said. Members of the Association had little to fear from the application of the law and while he agreed that there was much in the industry that needed cleaning up, he felt this could be better achieved by the officers of the DoE than by the road hauliers themselves.