Strikes Hit Spitalfields and B.R.S.
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From Our Industrial Correspondent
THE Road Haulage Wages .Council award was the indirect cause of two strikes of lorry drivers last weekâone official, the other unofficial.
The official dispute, called by the Transport and General Workers' Union, was at Soitafficlds Millet, London's second largest fruit and vegetable centre, now at its busiest time of the year.
It should have started on Monday, but was called off at the last moment to allow further talks to take place between the union and the Spitalfields Market Tenants' Association.
Cause of the trouble was the starting date of the 3 per cent rise and two-hour cut in the working week for the market's C-licence drivers. They customarily follow Wages Council awards, though not covered by them, and the employers offered the same starting date, January 1. The union wanted November 13.
What happened in the renewed negotiations is a little obscure. The employers appear to have offered to go to arbitration, a move which the union rejected. With deadlock reached, the union instructed its members to come out on strike and on Thursday morning more than 50 drivers came out. Others, however, whose employers had agreed to pay the extra money, were at work as usual.
But by Friday morning porters who belong to the same union had taken a band. They declared " black " 15 firms whose drivers were on strike and also kept a watch for lorries taking the place of C vehicles, This action brought a quick response. After another meeting between employers and union the strike was called off and the market returned to normal. No settlement terms were announced, but it can be assumed that the employers agreed to pay up.
The unofficial strike affected a series of parcels depots, mainly in London, of British Road Services.
It followed the renewed rejection by B.R.S. of the union's demands to bring their pay offer into effect before Janu ary 1. In addition, maintenance men at the depots objected to the turn-down of their claim for a 15 per cent, lieu bonus.