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RHA rejects spread

7th July 1972, Page 24
7th July 1972
Page 24
Page 24, 7th July 1972 — RHA rejects spread
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

of dock labour.

Ministers asked to revise whole dock labour scheme and safeguard road haulage interests

• The Road Haulage Association this week "totally rejected" the demands of groups of dock workers, supported by unofficial industrial action, that work now being undertaken in road hauliers' premises should be regarded as "dock work" and should therefore be undertaken only by registered dock workers.

In a memorandum to Ministers and organizations concerned, the RHA listed five main reasons why the dock labour scheme must not be extended into the road transport field:—

(a) Groupage has always been a road transport operation, and containers carrying groupage are still loaded on ships by dock labour.

(b) Industry would lose the economic advantages of containers if they had to be carried to the docks before they could be packed or emptied.

(c) The enforced employment of registered dock workers by hauliers would seriously increase costs and reduce flexibility.

(d) If container handling was made more costly and difficult, maritime container work might shift to the Continent.

(e) Bringing registered dock labour into hauliers' depots would mean manifestly unfair redundancies among the existing transport workers — who lack the generous terminal grants (up to £2800 per capita) given to dockers leaving their trade.

The Association memorandum also presents a seven-point scheme for what it considers to be an essential revision of the dock labour scheme, aimed at limiting its further scope, putting more disciplinary powers in employers' hands and removing some of the special privileges which registered dockers enjoy.

Says the statement: "The stake of the haulage industry in the national economy is very extensive, and its interest must not be overridden in an attempt to apply an ineffective and temporary palliative to a particular problem" — the problem of declining port employment.

Extension of the dock labour scheme by restrictions on the operations of others or the imposition of unnecessary surcharges would seriously inhibit the development of the transport industry.

Monday meeting

Next Monday the docks situation will be discussed at a special meeting of the RHA Metropolitan and South Eastern area, at the New Ambassadors Hotel, London WC1, at 7.45 pm.

Container agreement

• Bishops Wharf Ltd, one of the firms involved in the Liverpool container stuffing and stripping dispute, and the shop stewards committee signed an agreement last Friday which resulted in the lifting of blacking of the company's vehicles.

Tags

Organisations: Road Haulage Association
Locations: Liverpool

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