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PIB may probe TGWU's £5,000

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20th June 1969

Page 186

Page 187

Page 186, 20th June 1969 — PIB may probe TGWU's £5,000

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'charity' cheque from our political correspondent

• Mrs. Barbara Castle, Minister of Employment and Productivity, is to be asked to refer to the Prices and Incomes Board the payment of a ,E5,000 cheque by a road haulage firm to the Transport and General Workers' Union to end a labour dispute.

The case which has received widespread publicity in the national Press is to be raised in the Commons today, by Mr. Edward Taylor, Conservative MP for Cathcart, Glasgow, and an Opposition spokesman on Transport matters.

He has put down a question to Mrs. Castle requesting her to ask the Board to investigate the circumstances in which the company "paid a sum of money to a Union convalescent home as a means of securing the termination of a Labour dispute; and if she will make a statement".

In an interview with Commercial Motor, Mr. Taylor described the payment by the firm, Stephenson Clarke Industrial Services, as "utterly astonishing".

"I want to establish whether this is an isolated occurrence or part of a more general abuse in certain sectors of industry." he said. "If the facts are as reported, the payment smacks more of the Chicago underworld than the British trade union movement.

"Clearly there is a need for a full inquiry and, if the reports are confirmed, of swift and determined action, preferably by the union itself, to stamp out this kind of activity."

Parallel with this Parliamentary action, the TUC is reported to have been asked to investigate the affair.

Although there is no dispute that the payment was made, the precise purpose for which it was intended has produced conflicting accounts.

Background to the transaction was a five-month official strike by nine drivers, members of the TGWU, who worked at Stephenson Clarke's Walsall depot, in protest against the company's refusal to make the premises a TGWU "closed shop". On May 29, Stephenson Clarke was reported to have reached an "amicable settlement" with the union. The firm then sent the cheque which was said to have been made out to the Transport Workers' convalescent homes, although it is understood that the money was intended as redundancy compensation for the nine strikers, who had left the company's employ.

A spokesman for Stephenson Clarke said: "We cannot comment on what the union might do with the £5,000 but as far as the company is concerned there has never been any question of blackmail."

Mr. Jack Jones, general secretary-elect of the union, has claimed that there was "no real mysteryabout the payment. The union had sought to represent the nine drivers, but the company could not agree. Rather than join another union the men had preferred to leave the company and seek other jobs.

Arising from this the company had agreed to make available the 0,000 to be distributed to the men as compensation for

loss of employment.

According to Mr. Alan Law, Midlands road haulage officer of the union, who negotiated the deal with the company, the cheque was made out to the convalescent homes "because the firm did not wish to be seen making a donation to anything but a charity".

In an interview in the Daily Mail, Mr. Law was quoted as saying: "The men will be receiving the money in a few days. I have already told them that they are going to get it. This is a normal way of settling a dispute, it happens every day.

"I have been involved in similar deals a number of times before. I see nothing wrong with exchanging industrial peace for money. In the past it has been £100, £350, that kind of sum, depending on circumstances such as the number of men involved.

"I don't know what all the fuss is about on this occasion. I suppose is is because of the size of the sum involved."

Denying that the deal could be thought of as "blackmail" by the union, Mr. Law commented: "You might just as well say it is blackmail by the firm, paying us off to keep quiet."

He added that "sometimes some men are too proud to touch the money. They give it to charity.

The controversial settlement has brought a strike threat from members of the United Road Transport Workers' Union who had remained at work at the Walsall depot despite the official "blacking" by the TGWU of the firm's collection lorries.

Mr. Jackson Moore, secretary of the URTWU. 17.000-strong, with 34 members employed at the depot, has written to Mr. Vic Feather, acting general-secretary of the TUC. asking for an inquiry.

Mr. Geoffrey McCumesky. divisional of

ficer of URTWU in an interview in another national newspaper (The Sun), said his members were "very bitterabout the reported payout and "were talking about a

withdrawal of labour".

He went on: -The Transport Workers

were on official strike pay during the dispute and some of them immediately found other jobs. A payment to them was not necessary.

My men suffered when their vehicles were blacked by the Transport Workers. My members are now saying that the firm have been blackmailed."

"It rather looks as if it pays to be a striker. I made a deal with the Transport Workers. They agreed to call off their cam paign in return for us allowing them to take over union membership of another firm. But it now appears that this agreement was a sham. I am completely dissatisfied with the conduct of the Transport Workers."