Cousins to Lead Busmen's Claim Team
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT THE T.G.W.U. general secretary, Mr. Frank Cousins, is leading a new attempt to reach a settlement on the pay and hours claim of London's 38,000 busmen.
It had been thought that he would confine his efforts to a personal approach to Mr. Valentine, the London Transport Board chairman. In fact, there has been some private contact both with Mr. Valentine and his deputy, Mr. Grainger. But when Mr. Cousins met the full busmen's negotiating committee last week he was pressed to take over leadership of the negotiations and finally agreed to do Another result of the meeting last week was that Mr. Cousins agreed to press for a pay 'increase "no less favourable than that received by other transport sections ". This means the 6 per cent awarded to the London Underground workers. Moreover, the increase must be without "strings ", such as the productivity schemes which London Transport have been trying to press on the union.
There is no doubt that the busmen's request has put Mr. Cousins in something of a spot. The best straight offer of the L.T.B. so far has been 4s. short of the 14s. needed to match the 6 per cent rise on the tubes. Yet if Mr. Cousins does less well for his members than Mr. Sidney Greene of the National Union of Railwaymen did for parallel grades on the tubes, his militant reputation will suffer something of a setback. Meanwhile the company busmen were due to put in their pay claim yesterday (Thursday) and the municipal busmen are expecting a reply to their claim at a meeting of their joint council next Thursday.