District Councils of the N.U.R. all over the country have gone on record for action to back up the stand of its executive in opposition to the liner train scheme, The latest, the Midland District Council which represents 18,000, joined other district councils at Manchester, Newcastle and North-West London, among others, expressing" its wholehearted support” for the demand that the liner terminals be closed to private road hauliers.
Not only are the N.U.R. men angry, the locomen's union is due to raise with B,R.B. this week a claim for a bonus of three guineas a week for all footplate mene At last month's meeting of the executive of the Assoce iated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen only the chairman's casting vote prevented a work-to-rule decision from going through. The management wants to run more trains with only one man on the footplate. But although the union is no longer demanding that this issue and the , » productivity bonus claim should be discussed separately, it insists that the Board must agree to pay an immediate flat-rate bonus to all footplate staff not at present receiving one.
The other rail union,,the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association, has gone to arbitration owing the fact its members only received pay incr= eases of 4 and 5%, at end of last year, while manual workers received Soe
Thus we have all three unions in conflict with the B.R.B, = and the Government = this is scarcely the way to popularise the concept of nationalisation. It is to be hoped that better councils prevail in the Cabinet,