Municipal Busmen Get 8s. : Strike Threat in Manchester
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AWAGE increase of 8s. a week for drivers and conductors was accepted by delegates representing 78,000 bus workers employed by municipal undertakings at a conference in London last Friday. This was offered by the employers as an alternative to 9s. for drivers , and 7s. for conductors (The Commercial Motor last week).
The increase will cost the municipalities approximately £31111. a year.
Already, dissatisfaction with the award has been expressed in some parts of the country. In Manchester, drivers and conductors have threatened to start another series of unofficial strikes.
On Sunday an unofficial meeting of about 500 busmen, including representatives from Rochdale, Bury, Stockport and Oldham, passed a resolution expressing "disappointment and disgust" with the award and demanding that a freshclaim should be put forward immediately. The amount to be asked for in the new claim, a spokesman said, would be £8 10s. a week, plus time-and-a-half for all Saturday working and double time on Sunday.
[The new minimum rates are £7 5s. for drivers (£7 Ss. after a year's service) and £7 for conductors (V 3s.). Semiskilled " inside " workers are to be paid increases ranging from 5s. to 7s.] In Bradford, where a new fare schedule, designed to raise revenue by £65,000 a year, comes into operation on Sunday, the increase will add £43,000 to the transport department's annual wage bill. ClIr. A. S. Downey, chairman of the transport committee, commented: "I don't know where the money is coming from.. We have pruned the services quite a lot recently, and I don't think we can do much more in that direction."
Leeds Transport Department is already preparing an application for higher fares. The pay increase will cost the corporation £86,000.
Birmingham will have to find another £180,000 and Wolverhampton 142,000. , Hopes by Sheffield Transport Department of showing a surplus of £52.000 in the year ending on March 31, 1956, have been dashed by the pay award, which will cost the corporation about £130,000 a year. A fortnight ago, a new fare schedule, to cover the cost of the previous award, was brought in.
An expected gain of £17,000 to £20,000 a year from new fares introduced on Wednesday will be reduced by at least 112,000 consequent on the pay rise, states Newport (Mon.) Transport Department., Provincial bus companies, who met union representatives for the first time in London, on Tuesday, in connection with the current pay claim, are expected to give their reply at an early date.
OBITUARY
WE regret to record the deaths of " MR. C. TERRY, MR. JOHN COWlE and MR. C. D. LAW.
Mr. Terry was chairman and managing director of Herbert Terry and Sons, Ltd., and a director of the Enfield Cycle Co., Ltd.
Mr. Cowie, a former depot manager of Fisher, Renwick, Ltd., who was later with Brechin Road Transport and Thomas Muir, Son and Patton, Ltd., was killed in his garage when, it appeared, his car felt off the jack and crushed him. He was 52.
Mr. Law, who was 55, was chief staff training and appointments officer of the Dunlop Rubber Co., Ltd. He joined the concern 35 years ago.