Brink bid to avert municipal bus
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stoppage from our industrial correspondent
• Key talks in an attempt to avert the threatened strike by 77,000 municipal busmen were held in London on Wednesday24 hours before the Transport and General Workers Union executive met to consider the busmen's call for an official nationwide stoppage.
The bus employers arranged to meet union leaders to discuss the situation.
They had put proposals to officials at the Department of Employment and Productivity which they hoped might allow the busmen to get a pay rise with official approval. Although the proposals were not viewed very favourably by the Government officials, it was decided to go ahead and discuss them with the unions.
The dispute is over a Government threat to impose a further five-month freeze on the busmen's £1-a-week rises from this weekend. The pay deal was signed in December 1967 and the busmen are angry at further delays in the pay-out.
The TGWU executive met yesterday to consider a delegate decision that the busmen should give 14 days' notice of strike action from Monday. This would bring the municipal services of over 90 undertakings to a halt from August 12.
There were fears that a new Prices and Incomes Board report on busmen's pay might further anger the union leaders.
The PIB was expected to rule that Rochdale's 350 busmen must be told their productivity bonus of 15s a week is not completely acceptable. The Government "froze" this deal in May and referred the agreement to the Incomes Board_ But the PIB believes there should be more positive moves towards single-manning of buses in Rochdale. It also holds that sufficieht evidence has been accumulated on one-man buses to make further experiments unnecessary and, more controversially, it suggests that women drivers might be recruited where staff shortages exist.
Women drivers are already employed in Rotherham and Sunderland but there has been intense opposition in some other authorities. The rejection by the PIB of the Rochdale settlement will not help ease the atmosphere for the peace talks on the municipal busmen's claim.
In a bid to be conciliatory, Mr. Richard Marsh, Minister of Transport, said in Leeds on July 20: "The Government is not looking for war with the busmen or anyone else. There is still time to reach an agreement."
He added that a bus strike would be a tragedy. The unions had strong views and he could understand their difficulties; but the Government, he said, faced a position where, in the national interest, there had to be a prices and incomes policy.
"There is no reason," said Mr. Marsh, "why they cannot get the £1-a-week increase. I should have thought it was sensible for all the people involved to think very carefully about it, because nobody in the end wins anything by striking.
"In this case, there is money available for the men providing it is on the basis of the prices and incomes policy. There is still time for people to reconsider the very drastic step—from the point of view of the men —which is being embarked upon."
Sheffield services were interrupted for three hours last week while crews held a mass meeting which decided to support the delegate decision and strike from August 12 unless the busmen's pay demand is met; Rotherham crews have also given overwhelming support to a strike; and Blackpool busmen were awaiting the outcome of the TGWU executive meeting.
In Southampton, an unofficial work-torule and overtime ban was called off once the delegate decision was reported to the men. At Salford, Lanes, where men staged a one-day stoppage last week, Aid. Ralph Evans, chairman of the transport committee, was reported as saying the Council should "ignore the Government" and pay the £1 rises.
The unions and employers agreed nationally that the rise might be paid out in two parts-10s on basic pay backdated to December and another 10s from June 13. But the Government will agree to a settlement only if it involves a lOs bonus backdated to June 13 and lOs on basic pay from whenever the new agreement is reached.
Both plans provide for higher productivity through the introduction of one-man
buses. It is estimated, however, that the Government plan would give the men 2.6 per cent rise over the year while the union/ employer proposals amount to 54 per cent. And 54 per cent, says the Government, is too much under wages policy.
The TGWU risks fines of up to £500 on union officials if it calls a strike to force payment of a deal frozen by Order under the new Prices and Incomes Act. Union leaders would favour strikes in selected areas which need not necessarily be illegal.
Busmen in Newcastle upon Tyne have asked the Corporation for a meeting to discuss a local productivity deal. CUL N. Trotter, transport committee chairman, says that he would be happy to meet the men.
The new initiative followed a meeting at which Newcastle busmen decided not to strike on their own but to follow any national lead if the further freeze is imposed. But they decided, too, that it might be possible to do better in a local agreement.
Dundee Corporation have signed a productivity deal which will give local busmen a 13s 6d bonus in return for one-man bus operations, introduction of circular routes and co-operation in further productivity measures, including cutting frequencies. The deal is expected to come into effect on August 11.
In Nottingham, council leaders are considering setting up a trust fund for the 1,400 municipal busmen to prove they intend to honour their promise of a fl-a-week rise made in December. Such a move would be an attempt to by-pass the Government's freeze.
There are various ways in which the Government might stop the council. lithe district auditor decided that the setting up of
he fund was "improper expenditure" he would order the Nottingham councillors to -epay the money to the rate fund out of :heir own pockets; alternatively, the law )fficers of the Crown might consider prose:,uting the council leaders.
Ald. William Dyer, chairman of the traniport committee, wants to see £1 a week mid into the fund for each busman and the 'und back-dated to December. When the 5overnment restrictions were relaxed, the noney would be distributed to the busmen.
A four-hour meeting between the Scottish Bus Group and TGWU officials led by Mr. Larry Smith, national bus officer, took place in Edinburgh last week. It was decided to reword parts of a draft agreement on 3ne-man buses.
Dissatisfaction over the agreement led to a call by Scottish delegates for an overtime ban from August 4. The new terms will now be circulated to. see if they are any more acceptable to the men. One of their principal grievances—about a proposed "urban bonus" based on population of the area served—is to be discussed at a meeting of the National Council for the Omnibus Industry.
Mr. W. M. Little, chairman of the Scottish Bus Group, said: "The rewording clarifies some of the doubts that some of the lads had in their minds." It was particularly feared that one-man buses would be introduced too fast.
Delegates representing the 16,000 Scottish workers urged the union to press immediately for a rise of 22s bd a week—a move certain to bring them into conflict with the Government.
Mr. George Napier, Edinburgh busmen's leader, said: "I would be prepared to go to jail in support of my members" and Mr. Alex Grant, Scottish bus official of the union, complained that bus drivers and conductors were becoming social outcasts because of the peculiar hours they work "for a mere pittance".