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Fun by the sea
Page 6
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By our Labour Relations correspondent WHATEVER senior trade union officials and TUC delegates may say in public and in front of television cameras, they are privately concerned that support from their 10 million members for all-out strike action would be less than enthusiastic.
While it would be imprudent of the Government to ignore the views of the TUC expressed this week they will no doubt put them in their proper context.
Trade union officials at Blackpool were well aware that it would not be as easy to carry their members into a protracted strike as it was last winter.
In the transport industry the anti-strike lobby is strung and appears to be growing. During the summer CM inquiries revealed that not one driver was prepared to engage in all-out strike action in pursuit of a pay claim.
Most of the men we spoke to have still to feel the benefit of the last pay increase. The strike, they say, put them in arrears with hire purchase, mortgage and rental payments.
"We lost money during the dispute which will take a long time to get back," said one.
We found that operators have become more open with drivers by showing them how much they can pay in relation to their trading position.
One operator told us that if there was another strike like last winter he would have to go out of business and sell about 50 vehicles.
These facts are known to trade union officials, it is this new employer-employee relationship and the stark possibility of a serious loss of income that could avert another period of protracted industrial action in transport this winter.
Nevertheless TUC officials continued to put on a brave face and bold front at their seaside conference.