Strike vote boosts pay
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• Oil tanker drivers who deliver for Shell are to be offered a new pay deal after backing strike action by more than seven to one.
The Transport & General Workers Union balloted 350 P&G Trans-European tanker drivers when they rejected the company's offer of a one-off payment of £1,000.
Ron Webb, the union's national officer for road transport. is pressing for a 5% rise, He says: "With this vote now made public I believe we can make further progress, and at speed, to resolve this whole dispute."
He adds that the drivers' annual pay rate for a 15hour week is currently £20,000 and any deal will act as a benchmark for pay negotiations among other fuel-distribution contractors. The union reports that the P&O contract is worth £30m a year.
A spokeswoman for P&O confirms that a revised package is being discussed with the union; she adds that more than 400 drivers work on the contract.