Drivers to seek 20p.c. rise, longer holidays

Press, 14 April 1979, Page 12

Drivers to seek 20p.c. rise, longer holidays

A 20 per cent rise in wages, increased service allowances and leave, and stricter control of maximum driving hours are among claims the Drivers’ Federation will take to the general drivers’ award talks next month. The federation's president (Mr Ken Douglas) has said that negotiations for the new drivers’ award are regarded “as a strong and direct challenge to the resources Of the federation.”

“This challenge comes from the twin sources of the Government and

employers in the road transport industry, - ’ he said.

“The Government sees the negotiations, and the repression of drivers’ wages and conditions, as a key element in its strategy to place the burden of the economic crisis on the backs of the workers.

“Road transport employers are continuing their efforts to hold down wages and conditions in relation to other transport and associated workers, and are using the destructive transport policies imposed by the Government.”

Mr Douglas said the federation’s response would be to mobilise its membership increasingly intensively. That would take the form of developing a united national push, and of direct negotiations with individual employers. "Specifically, members will engage in negotiations with their own employers as a continuation of the

drivers’ wage case campaign,” he said. The federation would begin its activities by directing its national officers to submit a plan of action to affiliated unions. This would encompass job delegate conferences, stop-work meetings, and job meetings. Out of that the federation would develop the possibility of industry, area, national operator, and jab agreements, Mr Douglas said. In preparation for the activity, Mr Douglas said, the federation would issue a publication setting out the background to “the developing dispute on the general drivers’ award as the central basis for all drivers’ awards.” Also, affiliated unions would endeavour to make an analysis of paid wage rates on general drivers’ award jobs, and of paid rates to workers covered by other awards for associated jabs, Mr Douglas said.