Knowles Transport: both sides hold fast
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• Gerald Knowles, of Knowles Transport, the Wisbech haulage company which has been crippled by a strike since the end of December (CM last week), denied a report appearing in the national Press this week that it was hoped the company would resume operation on March 1.
Mr. Knowles told CM on Tuesday that he had reached agreement with the Transport and General Workers' Union over the terms on which his dismissed drivers would return to work. These would satisfy /he union's call for a 50-hour week with drivers earning between £22 and £25 a week; a clause had been added to the original proposals, however, allowing a return to a 40-hour week when demand for transport fell off or there was inclement weather.
The Press report was correct, said Mr. Knowles, in saying that the "militant strikers" would not be reinstated.
Mr. Alfred Avison, the TGWU Peterborough district secretary, would only restate his policy that there could be no return to work unless Mr. Knowles was prepared to re-employ all those dismissed drivers who had not found alternative employment.