Chobham Farm to apply for 0 licence
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PICKETS TURN ATTENTION TO HAULAGE DEPOTS
• The management at Chobham Farm container depot and the Transport and General Workers' Union have resolved their who does whatdispute at the East London ICD. It was announced on Friday that as from July 10. 40 registered dockers will be engaged at Chobham Farm as cargo handlers and that the 63 men presently employed at Chobham will be found other jobs within the depot. It is understood that some of these jobs will have to be created.
During the dispute, when hauliers' drivers were apprehensive about crossing the picket lines, the cargo handlers inside Chobham Farm began to deliver part consignments to the company's customers in London. Operations started initially with an AEC tractk e unit pulling company trailers. The unit is normally used only to run trailers to the testing stations, but the Metropolitan Licensing Authority granted the company an interim 0 licence to allow it to operate.
As the hauliers withdrew and the traffic built up the Chobham Farm management hired in a small fleet of self-drive Ford Transits and continued to run the gauntlet of the picket lines using their cargo handlers as drivers.
Mr Peter Bromley, the depot manager, has told CM that their customers were pleased with the service and that because there was nothing built into the rate for profit it was highly competitive.
"We have been promised that they will continue to use our newly started transport department for this collection and delivery work-, he said. The intention is that the
ICD will engage on more road haulage work and will be applying for a full operator's licence.
Under the agreement with the dockers the depot will now work on two 3U-1hour shifts a week, operating daily between 7 am and 9 pm. The registered dock labour in the depot will be paid about £10 per week higher than the present labour force who will now be working almost 10 hours a week less than at present and will in due course receive a shift allowance.
A similar system is in operation at the Containerbase in Barking where, according to one spokesman, the dockers have removed lines of demarcation and have become completely flexible.
Picketing continues On Monday a shop steward said that now that pickets could be spared from Chobham Farm "fresh ground would be broken" and three more firms were added to the dockers' black list —Jess B. Woodcock LW, Plaistow, F. J. Robertson Ltd, Millwall, and Railshift Containers in the Regent Canal dock.
The appeal to the House of Lords by Heatons Transport (St Helens) Ltd, Craddock Brothers, Wolverhampton, and Panalpina Services Ltd and Panalpina (Northern) Ltd, Bradford, regarding the blacking of lorries at Liverpool and Hull will begin on July 10 — one month after the Appeal Court's decision to reverse the industrial Court's ruling that the TGWU was responsible for its shop stewards' actions.