TGWU calls for all fleets of five or more vehicles to be nationalized
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by John Darker • The Transport and General Workers Union is to press the TUG — and a future Labour government — to introduce a comprehensive nationalized transport system. One aspect of it would involve taking into public ownership all hire and reward haulage fleets offive or more vehicles.
This is the result of a composite motion passed virtually unanimously at the union's delegate conference at Brighton last week.
The motion also called for financial and physical support for public road transport "in the knowledge that there is a need to recognize the financial underwriting of the cost".
And it called for the integration of "road, rail, docks, waterways, shipping and allied services".
The debate was marked by some cautionary remarks by road haulage drivers who feared the effect on employment if integration was carried too far.
When Mr Alex Kitson — former general secretary of the Scottish Commercial Motormen's Union, and making his debut as a TGWU platform speaker — replied to the debate, he attacked Mr Roy Jenkins MP for his recent endorsement of the "Transport 2000" programme.
Mr Jenkins, and other MPs of all parties with no knowledge of transport should stop dabbling in the subject, said Mr Kitson, to general applause.
Mr E. Rechnitz, a London driver, said union policy should avoid the clashes between haulage and dock workers experienced in recent disputes. All involved in freight transport had to be protected by union policy. He sympathized with residents in The Bishop's Avenue, North Finchley, where houses cost £250,000, for complaining about the noise his lorry made passing their doors. The rich owners concerned were not concerned at lorry noise in the Canning Town area.
Seconding the motion, Mr R. Hamlin, a London lighterman, urged a new transport authority under public ownership to determine transport mode. He asked: why are British waterways so moribund when in Europe they are exploited fully?
Freightliners Mr John Lowry, former chairman of the Scottish Commercial Motormen's Union, speaking with 40 years' experience as a lorry driver, made a surprising plea for the greater use of Freightliners. There was too much sectional thinking in the TGWU, he declared. "Consider the number of 32-tonners needed to shift thousands of tons of traffic from Aberdeen to London, when this could be delivered the next day using the Freightliner service. A lot more use could also be made of coastal shipping services to the North of Scotland. The road haulage industry should not be so greedy."
Mr Nick Bridge, chairman of a large branch of Birmingham drivers, also criticized sectional thinking. Busmen, he felt, bothered only with urban transport matters. But those opposed to "juggernauts" should not imagine that 250,000 drivers could be dispensed with. A policy relating passenger and freight traffic was urgently needed.
A Yorkshire driver was concerned about employment prospects for drivers compelled to switch from a road employer to the railway management. "Does road /rail integration mean that rail will be the dominant sector in controlling vehicle usage?" he asked.
A Nottingham driver said that it was a fear of jobs being lost which explained the hostility shown to the NFC's plans to integrate BRS Parcels and National Carriers some years back. Drivers had to be assured of full employment, and for public service and not private profit, if they were to support integration ideas.
A welsh driver with 30 years in private enterprise haulage mocked those who called for a general 35-hour week for an industry which had only recently brought down legal hours vastly greater than this.
Mr John Drew, a Lancashire delegate, urged the union to reject the Channel Tunnel project — a "concrete monument"! He feared the consequences of railway extension to Europe. Factories would increasingly be rail-connected and loading would be done by poorly paid non-transport staff at the transport workers' expense.
A Wolverhampton driver opposed the principle of nationalization of road transport until such time as the wages in existing nationalized industries and services were at satisfactory levels.
25-mile radius Replying to the debate, Mr Kitson regretted that two previous attempts through legislation had not solved the transport problem once and for all. The Co-op movement had resisted transport
integration in 1946. The 25-mile radius allowed to private road hauliers ultimately led to loss of traffic from the public sector. The 1953 denationalization of road transport was done because the then Government knew it was a profitable industry. There was no question of denationalizing the mines or railways. More recently, the entry of huge numbers of owner-drivers had depressed operating standards in road haulage.
Road haulage workers need not fear the effect on jobs of traffic passing to rail, declared Mr Kitson. Since the railways could take only 2-1per cent of existing road freight it was sensible to make the best possible use of the rail network.
Stricter licensing The TGWU, said Mr Kitson, was calling for a National Transport Planning Authority with five divisions dealing with passengers, freight, ports and airports, road resources and urban transport. The own-account sector of transport would have to be studied seriously. The policy so far envisaged the renationalization of all firms operating five or more hire or reward vehicles. There would need to be much stricter forms of licensing with tougher financial controls.
The continued existence of clearing houses concerned Mr Kitson. To great applause from the audience he declared: "The only people entitled to operate clearing houses should be those trusted by the industry. The Tower Hill operators and their like who handle masses of traffic with no restrictions should be dispensed with."
Traffic to France Mr Kitson warned that compensation payable for nationalized assets would be modest. On the Channel Tunnel, he said the estimates for it and for ancillary links necessary were massive. The Tunnel would employ a mere 126 people, while displacing many more. It would divert traffic to France and help the French economy. The Ferry Services would be hurt by loss of traffic through the Tunnel. He promised delegates that the TGWU would use its influence to give tunnel construction the lowest possible priority.
On Common Market entry, Mr Kitson said road transport workers were losing conditions they had fought to establish for many years. Only by the restoration of free collective bargaining could suitable compensation be won.