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Goodway strike ballot
Page 120
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• Transport and General Workers Union members at Goodway are set to begin industrial action next month after giving unanimous backing for their pay dispute.
Ballot results released this week show that all 52 drivers who returned their papers were willing to take industrial action short of strike action, with 88% willing to strike.
The drivers, based at the container carrier's Felixstowe, Manchester and Grays, Essex sites, are meeting this weekend to discuss the next step. They were balloted in early November on the company's offer of a 2% increase for drivers with under three years service and 1% for longer-serving drivers.
The United Road Transport Union will ballot its 10 Goodway members on the same issue this week.
The TGWU is willing to talk through ACAS, but stresses it has been given an "extremely strong mandate".
Some drivers say the union acted too slowly. "We're nearly in 1997 and we're still struggling for a pay rise for 1996. I'd like to know where my union dues are going. It's an absolute disgrace," says a driver from the company's Felixstowe depot.
But Brian Bowen, the TGWU's Manchester district officer, says: "Because of the legal constraints surrounding a ballot, it can take a long time to conclude... But I can appreciate the frustration among the drivers."