Winter is discontent ahead for hauliers
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WINTER of industrial disontent was predicted last veek when Scottish Conederation of British Industry hairrnan Alan Devereux poke to the Freight Transport kssociation Scottish dinner in ;lasgow.
Mr Devereux said: "I would ike to say to trade union nembers — the Sherriff of slottingham is dead: there is io more wealth about to take — not even five per cent. You ire now redistributing )overty."
He wrote off free collective )argaining as a "discredited ;ystem" and said that it was an nvalid regulator of incomes as .t caused the whole of society to be held to ransom by small uncontrollable groups.
Mr Devereux referred to the failure of Government and trades unions to reach an agreement on wage levels, and added that no Government compulsion would make industry more competitive or create new jobs.
"The only way that this can happen is by a change in the balance of power, brought about by the sheer weight of public opinion — of British commonsense — which says "enough — we have had enough."
He called upon industry to put its own house in order, saying: "Industry is overmanned, not least at management level, and we cannot throw the blame for shoddy design, poor production methods, and sloppy performance on trade unions."
"For years we have let pay just happen, and have only just woken up to the realisation that unless we are prepared to be political — and very political, too — to influence public opinion, then we will slowly sink to the industrial level of Portugal, without the benefit of its sardines and sunshine."
FTA president Malcolm Banks called for less Government interference and said that it was not heavy lorries, but Government agencies, commissions, inquiries, legislation, and Quangos (Quasiautonomous non-Governmental organisations) which are the "real juggernauts" today.
He coined a new word — bureaucranaut — to describe the nature of the problem. "The new word is as ugly as the phenomenom it describes," he said.
Mr Banks said there might be room for just one more committee of inquiry. "This would investigate the total effects on industry of all the other committees, commissions, agencies, Government agencies, Government departments, and all the rest."
Earlier in the day, FTA director general Hugh Featherstone said that the merger between PTA and the British Shippers Council will take place, as planned, on January 1.
He said that the BSC name would be retained for external purposes, although its activities would be organised from FTA's Tunbridge Wells headquarters.