18.09.1997

Conniving with management

The long-running ‘race’ row involving 300 truck drivers based at Ford in Dagenham took a new turn this week.

The drivers, who left the Transport and General Workers Union last year to join the 15,000-strong United Road Transport Union, are about to ballot for strike action to force the company to recognise and negotiate with Urtu, but TGWU leaders have made it plain that they are prepared to cooperate with Ford in order to break the strike.

There is intense competition for the £30,000-a-year drivers’ posts, where job security has been enhanced through the workers’ own control of the recruitment system - senior drivers themselves act as assessors and have been accused of nepotism. Earlier this year seven black drivers took the company to an industrial tribunal with TGWU backing, claiming that they had been unfairly denied employment as drivers because of their race. Whereas at least 40% of Dagenham workers are from ethnic minorities, only six of the drivers are black.

When Bill Morris, TGWU general secretary, tried to force through a change in recruitment procedures to give management greater control and, he hoped, ensure a more equitable racial mix, the drivers closed down their TGWU branch and all of them (including the black members) applied for membership of Urtu.

This led Morris to attack on two fronts - accusing Urtu of “compromising with racism” on the one hand and “conniving with management” on the other. The TGWU-backed action against the company at the tribunal was dropped at the last moment in exchange for an agreement to change the recruitment procedures through the introduction of an ‘independent’ assessor.

But Urtu was hauled before the TUC disputes procedure, accused of poaching TGWU members. The TUC dismissed allegations of complicity with racism, but found the smaller union guilty of indirectly recruiting members of another union in that it had not refused their applications for membership. It ordered Urtu either to return the members to the TGWU or pay the 900,000-strong union £36,000 compensation for lost subscriptions. It further instructed Urtu not to apply for union recognition at Ford.

Doug Curtis, head of campaigns and communications at Urtu, told the Weekly Worker that his union had no intention of complying: “The TUC wants us to treat the drivers like so much cargo. They seem to be saying you are never allowed to leave one union to join another without the first union’s consent.” He stated that the members would not strike to protect the old recruitment procedures, only to demand recognition of Urtu.

Ford is making use of the inter-union dispute to launch a wholesale attack on drivers’ conditions, and is known to be preparing to contract out delivery should a strike occur. Disgracefully the TGWU is prepared to see the drivers’ conditions smashed rather than accept that it has lost its former members. Last week Bob Purkiss, TGWU national officer for equality, said that his union would cooperate with Ford in bringing in the transport company, TNT, in order to break any strike, although Morris - no doubt remembering his own “conniving with management” jibe at Urtu - quickly contradicted Purkiss the following day.

Purkiss’s statement did not go down well with other TGWU members at Ford. Once TNT has its foot in the door, other non-production departments could be sold off with the risk that workers could be replaced or re-employed on worse conditions and lower rates of pay.

Bureaucrats in both unions are clearly putting their own interests before those of Ford workers. The drivers would have no chance of winning their strike unless they won massive support from TGWU members. Yet the strike would effectively be directed against the transport union just as much as the company. Nevertheless, if the strike is called, Ford workers of all unions must in their own interest act in solidarity to prevent scabbing by drivers employed by TNT or any other company. The company is cynically playing the politically correct race card in order to attack the conditions of all its workers, starting with the drivers.

It would be surprising if none of the drivers held racist views, as this poison affects every section of society. But it is clear that their prime concern is for their own job security, not racial purity. Nevertheless, breaking away from the TGWU was a short-sighted move. One set of self-seeking union bureaucrats is no better than another. The only way to defend workers’ conditions remains through unity in action alongside other grades to make gains for all Ford workers. It is an uphill battle to win solidarity on the sole basis of defending a relatively privileged position. Erecting protective barriers through gaining control of workplace procedures such as recruitment is often seen as being directed against other workers.

The time when small groups of workers (for example, dockers and print workers) could make gains through exclusivist practices is surely at an end. Workers at Ford need to establish one single union in order to mount an effective fight. Of course this can only be achieved through consent, but voluntary reunification is the last thing on the minds of the TGWU and Urtu tops. Bureaucrats who refuse to act unitedly and who cooperate with the employers must be replaced.

Alan Fox