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136 
CONCRETE JUNGLE
Page 44
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• The National Owner Drivers Association (NODAL which represents owner-operators' rights in the precarious concrete and building products distribution industry, was formed by a handful of owner-drivers at RMC Readyrnix in the mid-sixties.
Today, NODA has 700 members working all over the country for companies such as RMC, ARC, Redland Readymix, Greenham Sand and Ballast, Mixed Concrete, Tilcon and RMC Quickmix. It provides its members with insurance and legal services and negotiates haulage rates with their employers.
It costs £115 a year to be in NODA, a registered trade union whose members must own their own vehicles and work in the building industry. Because members are businessmen themselves, rather than employees, NODA is different from most trade unions, says national co-ordinator Mick Binns.
"We are not a militant union — all our men are self-employed. It is easier to get employed men to go on strike. Our member has a lorry round his neck which must be paid for each month."
NATIONAL STRIKE
NODA is currently in a dispute with RMC over the sacking of nine longserving members working on Merseyside. The union's 360 RMC drivers were last week voting on whether to hold a national strike.
But such tough measures are unusual, says Binns. The last time NODA struck at RMC was 10 years ago in a battle over rates for drivers' waiting time. This time, however, Binns is convinced the drivers are being used as pawns in a bid to reduce NODA's influence.
In disputes such as these, he wishes the union could be stronger. Membership has been constant for the past 10 years, despite the recession of the late seventies and today's building boom.
Binns has a target of doubling membership within three years. He says there are 3,000 owner-operators working in the industry, over 2,000 of whom are not in NODA or any other union. NODA has more or less conceded defeat over its dispute with ARC on the right to negotiate rates with the company. ARC refused and threatened to suspend owner-drivers who went on strike in support of their union. Although NODA members paralysed ARC premix plants in the South East 15 months ago, the company held its ground.
Most owner-drivers are paid by the load, and rates are determined by the distance they carry it. This makes them very vulnerable to the swings of the industry, although work is now booming for most members. The number one problem at the moment, says Binns, is strain. "Members are being required to work almost 24 hours a day."
DECENT LIVING
This has not always been the case. In the seventies, the industry was in a slump and membership of NODA fell slightly. Binns admits that today's problems are pleasant to have, and that members are grateful not to have to scrabble for work. "In this industry you tend to get guys who work hard to make a decent living," he says.
Members are organised regionally with a committee for each major firm in each area. Drivers who work for RMC subsidiaries in which NODA is not represented, such as Western, Yorkshire, Northern, South East, South Coast and Lincolnshire, tend to get a much worse deal on rates than drivers who work for RMC branches where NODA is the main negotiating body, says Binns.
NODA, which is based in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, has three fulltime staff. Binns has worked for the organisation for eight years, six as national co-ordinator. Before that he too was an owner-driver with RMC.
Members tend not to belong to any other organisation, although a few owner-drivers in the industry might be in the Road Haulage Association or Transport and General Workers Union. Binns, however, feels that NODA as a specialist association represents owneroperators' interests better than a general trade union.
NODA's problem is that it is not strong enough in companies such as ARC where it wants sole negotiating rights. In its dispute in 1987, ARC claimed NODA represented only 114 of its 600 owner-drivers.
It has 66 members at RMC North West, but is not represented in at least six of RMC's subsidiaries. In several other large building contractors NODA has no members. Like most trade organisations it would have more power if it had a larger membership, but ownerdrivers are an independent breed. Persuading them, as NODA would, that strength lies in numbers, is rarely easy.
by Murdo Morrison