YET ANOTHER CRIPPLING LONDON BAN?
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
IN spiteof the personal intervention of Mr. Maurice Holmes, chairman of the London Transport Board, and Mr. Harry Nicholas, acting general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, there appears to be little hope of averting a crippling ban on overtime and rest day working by central London busmen, starting from Sunday.
Delegates of the 28,000 drivers and conductors involved turned down by 67 votes to 3 an appeal by Mr. Larry Smith, a local fulltime official of the union, to call off their ban. He suggested that if the ban were dropped the union and London Transport might make a joint approach to the Minister of Transport, Mrs. Barbara Castle, about the staff shortage, which is one of the reasons for the proposed action.
But with Mr. Bill Jones, chairman of the nine-man central bus committee (and also a member of the union's national executive committee) announcing that his committee supported the overtime ban, there was really little hope that it would be lifted.
Mr. Smith could find only one more supporter for London Transport's summer service plans. Although he was able to announce that the Board had agreed to reduce the period of the summer cuts from four to three months at union request, delegates voted against the cuts by 66 votes to 4. The amended plan would mean that cuts start in July instead of in June and would allow 300 more bus crews to take their holidays during that time.
The ban, which could take 1,000 buses off London's roads, is partly against new cuts in Sunday services, due to start on Sunday. But more important it is in protest against the staff shortage and in support of "acceptable proposals" to solve it.
It is probably no coincidence that a new pay claim is in the offing. Militant action will no doubt be considered by busmen's leaders to be a useful means to bring extra pressure on the London Transport Board.
Heavy service cuts
TN anticipation of the ban on overtime, London Transport made plans to cut a total of 84 bus routes. Some routes will be stopped completely and others only at week-ends. The object, according to a London Transport spokesman, is to ensure that passengers should not suffer the same hardship as they did during the previous ban on overtime towards the end of 1963 when services were seriously disrupted.
The cuts, the Board felt, were preferable to emergency cancellations as and when bus crews failed to turn up. From Mondays to Fridays 54 routes will be stopped, on Saturdays 50 routes and on Sundays 34. The staff relieved by the cuts will be used to strengthen the remaining services.