Tanker drivers are ready for a strike
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by David Harris • Fuel tanker drivers in the South-East are threatening a strike ballot within four weeks unless pay and conditions are improved. More than 450 drivers working for all the major oil companies met last week in Grays, Essex at a meeting organised by the Transport and General Workers Union.
Danny Bryan, the TGWU's national secretary for road haulage, says: "There is grow. ing dissatisfaction about the decline in nay and increase in work pressure.
"Some employers are now paying three or four different rates of pay for the same job, and this is causing great resentment. In some cases drivers who work 37 hours a week are being paid more than others who work 50 hours a week." Other complaints from the union include shifts of up to 15 hours—which it says is far too long—and unrealistic running times allowed for journeys.
"In some cases the time allowed for getting from one place to another has not been changed for 10 years," says Bryan, "but we all know how much worse congestion is now than it was a decade ago."
The union is demanding improved running times, better rates of pay and a minimum of 12 hours rest in any 24-hour period.
The oil companies say they have not yet heard from the unions about their demands. A BP spokesman says: "We met with the unions only last week and this was not mentioned, but doubtless we will speak to them soon."