URTU is all set to rejoin the TUC
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The United Road Transport Union is to rejoin the TUC as part of a drive to raise the profile of drivers. URTU general secretary Bob Monks is planning to meet TUG general secretary John Monks early in October to discuss ending its five-year exile from the union movement.
URTU resigned following a row with the Transport & General Workers Union about alleged poaching of members at Ford's Dagenham car plant. Earlier this month, leaders of the two unions met to clear up this and other outstanding issues.
Bob Monks says co-operation with other unions is essential to give all drivers a stronger voice: "From the drivers' perspective, there always seems to be some other concern which is given greater importance than theirs; they don't have that collective voice coming from the TUC."
Ron Webb, T&G national secretary for road transport, says the return of its former members at Dagenham would not be a pre-condition for URTU rejoining the TUC. "I think there is an eagerness on both sides to got things back on to an even keel," he adds.
Ironically, tensions between the two unions could be inflamed at Dagenham just as they patch up their differences. Ford is proposing to transfer 180 car transporter jobs, held by the T&G members, to an in-house workforce represented by URTU as part of an efficiency drive (CM 26 July-1 August). Further "rationalisation" has been threatened by David Thursfield, chairman and chief executive of Ford of Europe. He says the company's billion-dollar-ayear logistics costs must be cut.