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Drivers Action Movement
Page 49
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What do you do when a union does not deliver what you think it should? For Jack Crossfield, still a branch secretary of the T&G, the answer was to set up a new organisation, the Drivers Action Movement (DAM).
Crossfield is clearly a union man at heart, but feels that the union can be too cautious: "The trouble is that in the past, unions have had a relationship with government that no longer exists. Even under Blair they haven't had a lot of support."
Crossfield argues that this means fundamental union aspirations remain just that aspirations, not achievements: "We've failed miserably to reduce the working week; we've failed miserably with pension schemes; we've failed miserably in bringing up rates of pay."
Crossfield acknowledges that the T&G has put its 210-an-hour pay campaign high on the agenda, but questions its effectiveness: "I don't know a single LGV driver on that rate, which tells you something about how widespread it is. There are some firms paying it, but not very many, and the campaign has been running for three years.'
Crossfield says one of the reasons he set up the Drivers Action Movement is that it can sometimes campaign more vigorously than the unions: "It seems to me the union can be cautious -it fears that if it puts afoot wrong it might be in danger of having funds sequestered. The DAM doesn't have any financial status to protect, so it leaves us more able to do things the union might not."
But Crossf 'old, who works as an agency driver, believes activists will have a difficult fight for years to come unless the government decides to support unions more actively: "It has become too much of a free-for-all. Some of the wealthier hauliers pay a reasonable rate but the poorer ones can't do that, and there are too many of them."