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Irish sugar beet moves agaii
Page 12
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• Irish beet hauliers returned to work this week as sugar beet production resumed following a four-week strike by farmers. Up to 500 trucks were held up by 24-hour pickets during the dispute.
Having struck for a 28% increase, the farmers finally accepted 7%, following government intervention.
A 10-week production season must now be completed in six weeks, and hauliers will have to work every day except Christmas day to retrieve lost earnings.
Hauliers will now receive up to IRi7.70/tonne to carry beet; two thirds is paid by the processor, Irish Sugar, and a third by the grower.
The hauliers had already agreed an 8% rate increase for this year, but they are deter
mined to negotiate better pat for next season. The increasE followed an11-year rates freeze However, the emphasis now on trying to retrieve los earnings. "Hauliers will try tt pick up as much work as the, can in the season that's left,' says the beet hauliers' spokes man, Richard Persse.
Some hauliers hire in sub contractors to augment their fleets for the season. Others use older trucks for the shor' (60 mile average) trips from farm to factory for the bee: harvest. "The trucks have E low trade-in value so SOME people keep them just for thE 10-week season and put their back off the road when it's over,' says Persse.
Some of the beet is movec by farmers clang some own, account haulage.