RHA criticized by unions at Leeds
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• A five-day course on transport planning, operation and management at the University of Leeds last week was attended by 67 delegates. The course was jointly sponsored by the University and the Armed Services' education committee.
The general secretary of the United Road Transport Union, Mr Jackson Moore, thought that the reason for today's industrial unrest in transport was the large company type of operation which now existed, the personal contact between employer and employee having disappeared with the advent of the personnel manager.
He criticized the Road Haulage Association's attitude to industrial relations problems. Its industrial relations committee had no power to act and the unions had not met the Association collectively for three years.
Mr Moore suggested that the negotiations should be between unions and the Association and not between unions and individual companies. Trade unions picked off the weakest firms for new wage negotiations and when these were successfully concluded it meant that the larger firms had their backs to the wall.
The introduction of tachographs would be beneficial to the transport industry because drivers would then be paid for actual work done and not for manufactured work. Mr Moore went on to say that if employers used tachographs and could ascertain that their vehicles were being fully employed, they would be more readily agreeable to pay improved rates.
The union secretary was loud in his praise for the RTITB. He suggested that rather than complain about shop stewards, employers should have them educated and trained.