No Consideration for the Public
Page 18
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
WE must once again refer to the regrettable frequency of strikes amongst workers in passenger road transport which are taking place suddenly in various •parts of the country, often directly against the advice of the unions concerned and of which they are members. _ It is outrageous that the travelling public should be made to suffer because of some, often trifling, quarrel between the workers and the employers, or on account of some petty or even largely imaginary grievance, which sometimes amounts to a personal affair.
A recent case in point was the cessation of work by drivers and conductors in a London area merely because they took umbrage at the necessary transference of an official from one depot to another, and who had only temporarily been engaged at the depot from which he was moved. Those concerned in this particular matter endeavoured to convey the idea that such forcible protests should not be regarded as strikes. This reminds us of the old proverb which starts : " A rose by any other name except that in this case the action was not so sweet.
Members of the public had nothing to do with this altercation, but it was they who suffered, and to add to their discomfort other drivers entering the affected area would not stop to permit passengers to board their vehicles or alight from them, with the result that some of them were carried, it is stated, for six miles, often well beyond their desired destinations. One or two conductors have since complained that they were assaulted or in fear of assault by passengers or would-be travellers. What, however, can they expect? The public is becoming highly incensed at this lack of consideration, and can hardly be blamed for adopting a threatening attitude.
How can this Nation be expected to settle its difficulties with others in an amicable manner if, amongst our own people, we adopt 'such tactics? It is a poor excuse to blame behaviour of this nature on to post-war nerves. Men and women engaged in passenger-transport must be brought to realize that they owe a duty to those who wish to travel; also that they are not doing themselves or their Union any good, for such actions tend to weaken the powers of negotiation which are the most potent of their defensive weapons.