New Pay Claim by Company Busmen
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AFURTHER claim for a substantial increase in pay for the 100,000 employees of provincial bus companies was submitted to the employers by the unions last week-end. A spokesman for the Transport and General Workers' _Union on Monday denied reports that a claim for municipal bus workers Was to be lodged "within a few days."
No figure was given in the unions' application. This will probably be stated verbally when both sides of the National Council for the Omnibus Industry meet to discuss the claim. A meeting had not been arranged when The Commercial Motor closed for press.
The claim has not come as a surprise. There was wide dissatisfaction among bus workers with the 5s. settlement in November, and the London bus workers' settlement in January exacerbated the position. This gave drivers and conductors an extra 7s. 6d. a week.
Only last week, more than 100 drivers and conductors at a Leicester depot of the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Co., Ltd., made a strong demand for the union to apply for a further rise in pay. Some of the men were in favour of strike action. Others asked for a minimum wage of £10 a week. .
Some circles have expressed surprise at the unions' action in by-passing the municipal undertakings, the traditional testing ground for new wage claims. But the last award was made by the Industrial Disputes Tribunal on the basis of the municipal case, and although they were under no obligation to do so, the companies then offered an identical sum.
If the latest application had been first submitted to the municipal undertakings, and then referred to the Tribunal, it is doubtful whether the unions could have made a case for a rise so soon after the last award. By reversing the procedure on this occasion, the claim stands a better chance of succeeding.
STRIKE "CO-OPERATIVE " AT COVENT, GARDEN
A CO-OPERATIVE arrangement by In. private hauliers at Covent Garden, to move perishables normally carried by two operatdrs whose drivers are on unofficial 'strike, had notgone into action when The Commercial Motor closed for press. Instead, by agreement betweert oPerators -and consignors, . British Road 'Services, British Railways or the consignors' own vehicles,. were carrying the loads, mainly to Covent 'Garden and other -London fruit and vegetable markets.
The hauliers affected by the strike were Harrison James and Co.. Ltd., and S. A. Hartz, Ltd. Some 30 operators. all members of the Road Haulage Association, were concerned in the relief arrangements.
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