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Ford's fleet under review
Page 12
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II by Karen Miles
;=ord's truck fleet at Dagenham s set to come under further pressure to admit more nonwhite drivers following an agreement to assess racism throughout the whole of Fords UK operation.
Over the next few weeks a joint union and management review group will begin work to establish targets and timetables for equal opportunities improvements among the car and van manufacturer's 26,000 UK employees. Failures in this area have led to a number of high-profile incidents, including an out-of-court settlement 18 months ago with seven men who had accused Ford of excluding ethnic minorities from its Dagenham truck fleet.
The anti-racism initiative follows a meeting last week between the worldwide head of Ford, Jac Nasser, and union leaders including Bill Morris of the Transport & General Workers Union.
Some 40% of the Dagenham workforce are from ethnic minorities—but only one of the plant's 300 truck drivers is not white, and he was taken an after the out-of-court settlements.
Ford and the United Road Transport Union, which took over representing most of the Dagenham drivers at the time of the truck drivers' race row, say the appointment of an independent examiner to assess all potential recruits should have already helped to satisfy most of the review's requirements.
The URTU agrees that racism could exist among Ford drivers but says that so far there has been no evidence to prove it. The proportion of non-white drivers is similar to that found across the road transport industry as a whale, it argues.
• Ford says it has "no intention" of recognising URIC for Collective bargaining purposes with the Dagenham drivers.