Unions must stop frolics that create strife, says RHA
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• Trade unions that allowed their paid officers to go off on a frolic of their own and create local industrial strife were criticized yesterday by Mr William McMillan (James Hemphill Ltd, Glasgow, a member of the Coast Line group), chairman of the Road Haulage Association.
"The unions must discipline their officers just as organizations of employers require their own officers to abide by official policy", he said. "In wielding their authority the unions must accept the responsibility that goes with it."
Mr McMillan, who was speaking at the annual dinner of the RHA West Midland area at Sutton Coldfield, was warm in his praise of West Midland hauliers who had stood resolutely together in the face of a demand made in the name of the TGWU for the special bonus of £2.50 a week for the mere holding of an hgv driver's licence. The claim "was killed by the solidarity of the hauliers on whom the demand was made and by their willingness to suffer severe financial hardship in defence of a principle".
Members of the RHA had, said Mr McMillan, voluntarily subscribed many thousands of pounds to a special fund set up to relieve the distress to these hauliers caused by strikes and the blacking of their vehicles at customers' premises.