Hartlepool settlement stopped by TGWU
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by Derek Moses
• As forecast in COMMERCIAL MOTOR last week, -Hartlepool Town Council has agreed to offer the local busmen a settlement in line with the Prices and Incomes Board recommendations. This move was requested by the bus crews themselves and would have given them a bonus of lOs per week and a 20 per cent rise above the fiat rate for all one-man operators.
However, the Transport and General Workers' Union has told the local branch that the busmen must not, on any account. accept the town council's offer. This has led to a considerable amount of local feeling. The men were happy to accept the council's offer as the £1 per week fiat rise has been rejected by the Government.
Mr. T. J. Sheppard, transport manager of Hartlepool Corporation Transport, told me on Tuesday that he was "very dis appointed" at the union's attitude as the council's proposal was the best solution under the present circumstances. The Hartle pool busmen, too, are very dissatisfied, as they do not wish to take out summonses against the Corporation for the non-payment of the Ll.
The union view was presented by Mr. Larry Smith, national organizer for the TGWU. He repeated that the union does not accept the PIB report, and said that all municipal bus employers were under a legal obligation to pay the £1 rise, even if they had to wait six months before being allowed to do this. The rise should then be backdated to the original settlement of December 14. They were certainly not going to settle on a local basis something which they would not accept at national level.
Mr. Smith admitted that he had not spoken to the Hartlepool men and did not know their feelings on this matter. He said the union could get a rise of lOs a week "anywhere at any time". This was not what they wanted.
Hartlepool Corporation, in common with other municipal undertakings, has received a letter from the TGWU asking the transport department to keep a record of the bus crews' earnings since December 14 so that the £1 rise can be back-dated once it becomes payable. Mr. Sheppard said that it was definitely not the council's policy to back-date this increase. He could not see why a local agreement should affect national negotiations.