Union moves to fight the bus cuts
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Redundancies will be resisted says TGWU
A BIG CAMPAIGN to stop the threatened cuts in Britain's bus services is to be mounted by the Transport and General Workers Union. And it has warned the Government to think again about its plans to drastically reduce its level of financial support to the industry.
News of these moves came last Friday from •Mr Larry Smith, national secretary of the union's passenger group. He was unveiling a TGWU policy document which had been put to Environment Secretary Anthony Crosland and Transport Minister Dr John Gilbert at a recent meeting.
Mr Smith said that the Government is expected to publish its review on overall transport policy some time next month. The union had been promised a further meeting in February.
"But it is clear from the statements that have already been made that cuts will be savage in some places," he said. "We will resist any such cuts ,while the present review is taking place."
Leaders of busmen all over the country would be meeting in London on January 14 to talk about plans for a national "anti-cuts" campaign. A mass lobby of Parliament and industrial action would be discussed.
Mr Smith hit out at some local authorities which he accused of a "deliberate attempt" to run down public services so that the "spivs, drones and butterflies" of the private sector could move in.
He named 20 counties which the union believed were not properly supporting NBC by giving inadequate direct grants and not applying for Government grants. These are Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Cleveland, Derbyshire, Devon, Durham, East Sussex, Essex, Golucestershire, Hereford and Worcester, Humberside, Kent, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Salop, Somerset, Warwickshire, West Sussex and Wiltshire.
"The Government has given to the counties the responsibility of bus service finance. We believe that the Government should make grants direct to NBC," Mr Smith commented.
"What we are talking about is the run-down of the cheapest form of passenger transport and the abject surrender of our cities to the car," he went on. On their own figures the union believed that if every member of the population gave lp a day all services would be viable.
"Or to put it another way, just two per cent of the money given to railways in Britain, redirected to buses over a fiveyear period, would be enough for a good bus system."
The policy document submitted to the Government comes out in favour of increased subsidies. It points out that in Common Market countries subsidies on bus services totalled some 50 per cent of the running costs. The UK contributed far less.
Reduction in Government aid and the reluctance of the counties to fill the gap would inevitably result in the withdrawal of some services. Two statements which had already been made by the Government backed this up.
First, Dr Gilbert had said that it was Government policy to reduce the level of the Transport Supplementary Grants. And secondly he had declared that if a county decided not to support a particular loss incuring service it must be assumed that these would be cut.
"Whilst the union understand and appreciate the Government's financial problems, this would not justify sacrificing the cheapest form of public transport in many rural areas.
"To do so would create isolated wastes. It would also put busmen on the dole queue. That situation is not acceptable and will obviously be resisted."