Bodymakers' Pay Talks: Answer Next Month ?
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A 1-11R talks in London last week,
the employers' side of the Wages Board for the vehicle-building industry gave an undertaking to the workers' representatives that they would submit a pay claim to constituent organizations and members and try to give an answer before the end of next month.
The general secretary of the National Union of Vehicle Builders told The Commercial Motor that be thought the unions had an "exceedingly good" case.
The claim is for an extra 6d. an hour for skilled workers, 54d. an hour for the semi-skilled, and 51d. an hour for, the unskilled and for females, with proportionate increases for juvenile workers.
OPPOSMON TO MERGER
THE Parliamentary Bill which is being promoted by Maidstone and District Motor Services, Ltd., with the object of merging their subsidiary, Hastings Tramways Co., into the Maidstone undertaking, is to be opposed by Hastings Town Council. Maidstone and District plan to substitute motorbuses for the trolleybuses at present run by the Hastings company in Hastings and Bexhill.
Mr. N. P. Lester, town clerk of Hastings, said it was hoped that negotiations with M. and, D. would begin as soon as they heard what attitude .Bexhill Corporation had decided to take on the Bill.
TOO MUCH FUEL
FUEL allocations to some small Clicensees were excessive, said Mr. R. S. Heaton, chairman of the North Western (Western) Area of the Road Haulage Association, at the annual dinner of the Cheshire, Flintshire and Wrexham sub-areas of the R.H.A. at Chester last week.
Many operators of 5-cwt. and 10-cwt. vans were not previously using the amount of basic ration granted. In his .own fleet of 24 long-distance vehicles it would have been economic to lay up five petrol-engined vehicles and use their allowance to help out the rest, but they had to be taxed and insured.
Mr. George Mayers, of Chester, who operated six long-distance A-licence vehicles on steel traffic, said that the whole of his fleet had been fitted with towing gear. Forty per cent, of fuel required on trips to Glasgow was being saved by dispatching vehicles in pairs, one towing the other on the return journey, except on steep gradients.
ALLOWANCES " INEQUITABLE "
FUEL allowances for commercial vehicles were inequitable because the rationing scheme made no provision for trunk services operating 24 hours a day, compared with purely local work. This has been pointed out by the transport committee of Tees-side Chamber of Trade.