TGWU cashes in on Goodways peace deal
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IN The Transport and General Workers Union is to canvas new members in two of Goodway's non-unionised depots after an ACAS-brokered agreement ended the company's long-running pay dispute.
About 20 drivers at the container carrier's sites in Liverpool and Kirk Smeaton, North Yorks are to be approached as the TGWU attempts to capitalise on what it calls a "victory for common sense" on pay.
"We will be going to pick up new members and then force the company to recognise them as being part of the national agreement," says Les Shaw, TGWU district officer for Ipswich.
In a seven-hour meeting under the auspices of the conciliation service ACAS before Christmas Goodway management and the union agreed on a 3.5% increase on basic pay for all 120 drivers at the company's depots in Felixstowe, Manchester and Grays, Essex.
The increase, which only covered the period from the agreement until the end of the year, is followed by a 1.5% rise from 1 January-1 May, Negotiations will begin in the next few months for the year from May.
As part of the deal, drivers get two payments of £75 and in January 1998 the length of service required before they qualify for higher paid work will decrease from three years to one year.
Goodway management agreed to meet the union at ACAS after 88% of its unionised drivers at Felixstowe, Manchester and Grays voted in support of a pay strike.