Fighting the Conciliation Agreement
Page 45
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Counter-proposals in Yorkshire Disclosed at a Meeting of Nearly 1,000 Operators THE campaign of Active opposition
to the putting into operation in Yorkshire of . the findings of the National Joint Conciliation Board is already developing, following a meeting of nearly 1,000 Aand B-licence holders, in Leeds, last Sunday night. At this meeting, organized by the Yorkshire Stage Caniage Operators Association, counter-proposals in opposition . to most of the National Board's report were put forward. • This week, one of our representatives was informed that these counterproposals for Yorkshire will be submitted to-day (Friday) to the sub-committee of the Yorkshire Board.
Our informant stated that the new proposals would be put forward in the firmest possible manner. The Area Board may declare that it is not within its province to consider the proposals, but even if the Board does discuss them, the employees' panel will, obviously, have nothing to do with them. It is learned that the Y.S,C.O.A. delegates on the Board will recommend the 1,600 holders of A and B licences among its members to observe the counter-proposals until the industry has adjusted itself to the new situation.
General opposition to the National Board's findings was crystallized, at last Sunday's meeting, in the following unanimous resolution:—
That this mass meeting of goods operators registers its strong disapproval of the restrictions imposed by the operation and administration of the Road and Rail Trafflo Act of 1933. It also expresses its deep dissatisfaction with the unrepresentative composition, as well as the uninst recommendations, of the National do;nt• Conciliation' Board on wages and con k ditions of employment in this industry. It urges, and pledges itself to support. a national protest against such ,hindrandes and hardships; and requests that representations be made both to the Minister of Transport and to the Members of the Home Of commons. with a View to their immediate abolition," At Sunday's meeting, which was held under the chairmanship of Mr, T. FL Burrows, the counter-proposals were detailed by Mr. J. Keeling, a member of the Yorkshire Board. These
may be summarized as follow:— .
One wages grade for the whole of Yorkshire, on the basis of a 53-hour week (not guaranteed) with the following hourly rates of pay for drivers:—
' 7 Fee lie. Per wk. of 53 hrs. a. d.
Vehicles up to 21/2-tom carry.
irg capacity ... 2 0 2 13 Vehicles up to 12-ton gross laden weight ... 1 2 5 1 Vehicles over 12.ton gross laden weight 1 3 3 6
Statutory attendants, 2 12s. 6d. per week. No special rates for drivers on long-distance or trunk services. , Payment for overtime to be at the ordinary hourly rate, except on Sundays, when at the rate of time-amfa-half. No payment for holidays. Subsistence alloWm.e ion drivers unable to return to their baas the same clay to be os recommended by tbe National Board. Operators in agricultural areas or in areas suffering from de
pr.?.;sed economic conditions to the tiubt to apply through the Conciliation Board
fog,inery Cr the 1,ie,n=ing late ¶01 he rThis 'ionL 40 pay wages lower than those speciflecl a 1:ovc,.
Mr. Keeling said the employees' representatives claimed that Grade 1 wages should apply in an area stretching from the southern limits of Chesterfield, following the Pennines to Sheffield; Huddersfield, Bradford,
Keighley andSkipton, and extending to Leeds, Ripon, Harrogate, York, Goole, DonCaster, Hull, Brisilingtep, Scarborough and Whitby.
Operators could not, he argued, tie themselves down either to a 48-hour week or to a 48-hour guaranteed week. They preferred to pay drivers on an hourly basis, with a Working week of 53 hours.
Mr. Keeling said that to attempt at present to put into operation the national report would put operators out of business. He argued that the driving of the modern motor vehicle required only , a semi-skilled worker and quoted hourly rates, ranging from 101d. to ls. 20. for semiskilled labour in other trades.
Mr. Keeling declared that they were putting forward suggested wages and conditions which they felt the industry could meet.
The speaker stated that, in the Association's view, when a Yorkshire driver travelled to London he should receive the rate of pay applicable at his base in Yorkshire, which should 'apply even if the driver were temporarily kept in London.
Mr. Frank G. Bibbings, general secretary of the Association, made a vigorous attack on the National Board and its report. The attitude of the Board, he declared, had been autocratic and overbearing. It had never received from the industry a mandate to negotiate wages and conditions. "According to the National Board's report," he continued; ." you will not be expected to pay less than Grade 2 in Yorkshire, and if you are in what is known as an important industrial centre you will be cOmpelled to pay Grade 1." He added that, in the view of the National Board, such places as Rotherham, Barnsley, York and Chesterfield—where nearly 20-25 per Cent. of the population depended upon unfinployment benefit or relief—were " /mportant industrial centres."
After complaining that the appeals committee Set up to hear appeals from Area Boards was not impartial, but was composed' of members of the National Board, the speaker alluded to the Yorkshire Board, and declared, that the hands of the employers' representatives were tied.
Mr. Bibbings suggested that. the Appeal Tribunal was not deciding appeals on their merits,. but was going out of its way to lay down basic principles.
Mr. Bibbings referred to the manner in which, he alleged, the railway companies obtained information from applicants. He knew of a case where, after an applicant had given. certain information, and before he had left the court, a railway representative had endeavoured to secure traffic from one of his clients by undercutting.
Speaking of theway in which the railway companies were reducing their charges by means of agreed rates, Mr. Bibbings stated that whereas, in 1933. the standard charge for the rail transport of potatoes from Lincolnshire to South Wales was £40 per 100 tons ; they were now being carried by rail On the same route for a large multiple concern at £4 5s. per 100 tons.