URTU agency D ouglas Curtis of the United Road Transport Union
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says (CM 31 Oct-S Nov) that employers should behave more responsibly to their employees.
URTU must have some new-found money to indulge in such extensive training. On page six of the same issue you report URTU owes £36,000 to its parent body the TUC. Surely if you berate the employers for not coughing up, you should be pure yourself.
Maybe it is a matter of principle and URTU is not avoiding its dues. But Curtis should tell us, instead of giving a long-winded sales pitch for a commercial outfit, Industry's Driving Force.
Years ago, URTU was the originator of agency drivers despite a TUC stance to the contrary. When unemployment became the norm, rank and file members of URTU organised themselves into a member-run outfit to combat unemployment; not for monetary gain.
Suddenly an attack of principles struck URTU and employers were told not to employ these union drivers—by URTU itself.
If IDF is a separate firm that pays the same rate of tax as hauliers, why does its parent body, URTU, have a separate and exclusive arrangement with the DOT to give secret information against its competitors?
Curtis is one minute a "whistle-blower" to the Government, and next a salesman for an employer. Which takes priority?
Companies availing themselves of IDF should therefore make certain they are employing agency drivers on a strictly commercial basis, and not because of some veiled threat that a refusal to use URTU-sanctioned agency drivers might lead them having the "whistle" (as Curtis calls his charter) blown on them. The Office of Fair Trading and The Monopolies Commission, should monitor this unprecedented tie up.
I realise that URTU and your magazine have a "lovein" relationship but in the interest of free speech perhaps you could print the view of others rather than URTU. Perhaps Curtis could rebut what I have said.
John W Stevenson, Manchester As always, Commercial Motor reserves its right to Praise or criticize any organi sation on its merits Ed