Comment: Quick deal vital in drivers’ strike

Jun 17 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

WHILE there will be a sigh of relief that the four-day tanker drivers’ strike ends today, this will only be a brief respite unless talks aimed at resolving the pay dispute reach a successful conclusion.

Drivers are threatening a second four-day stoppage for this weekend, unless an agreement is reached.

Leaders of the Unite union, and managers from two haulage companies which deliver petrol and diesel to Shell garages, met for more than three hours at a secret location yesterday in a bid to break the deadlock, with the two sides due to meet again today.

Meanwhile, although many petrol stations have run out of fuel, the kind of blatant panic-buying which has been seen before when fuel supplies were threatened appears to have been largely absent.

Rather than showing common sense and restraint among drivers, it is more likely to be a sign of weary resignation over the latest disruption to fuel supplies, of which there have been several real or imagined alarms this year alone.

The two sides in the dispute have clashed over the drivers’ pay, with the companies insisting they had offered a 13% rise, which would take average earnings to around £41,500 by the end of the year.

The union maintained that the drivers were on a basic rate of £31,800 and were claiming a rise to increase that to £36,000.

Unite has criticised Shell for being “greedy” by not increasing payments to the haulage companies involved despite making huge profits.

However, even if it has served no other useful purpose, this dispute has shone a bright light on the previously hidden subject of how much tanker drivers are paid, which has no doubt come as a surprise to many.

In the final analysis, however, all that members of the public are concerned about is for this dispute to be settled as quickly as possible, to prevent another strike crippling fuel supplies.