Bonus Slashed -by T&g Official
Socialist Press1976 1976-07-14Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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In a startling set of "negotiations" the T&GWU Oxford Buckle has recommended a deal for car ferry drivers which includes a £14 a week cut in bonus payments.
This deal confirms that the hallmark of a bureaucrat is not that he has an office and a briefcase, not that he manoeuvres against multant workers and destroys trade union democracy - but that he represents the interests of the employers.
This point is demonstrated with extraordinary clarity in the struggles of the ferry drivers - who work for Cartransport Co. driving new cars from the Cowley car factories, ready for delivery to distributors.
Buckle, an extreme right-winger, has used every trick in the bureaucrat's book to protect his chief henchman in the ferry drivers branch, Henry Shepherd. Shepherd • not only assistant branch secrecary and chief negotiator (alter Bucklei - but is also senior forethe right to remove Shepherd from his union positions Buckle was then forced to reverse this at the T&GWU District Committee, and say that the Branch has the right to decide.
But since then Buckle has manoeuvred to stop a branch meeting. from taking place. When finally pinned down to a date, he cancelled the T&GWU hall on the grounds that it was double booked.
But all this is only one side of the story. The primary question is Buckle's relationship with the employers - not on a personal level (his son Alan Buckle holds a high position as Group Traffic Coordintable. The deal Buckle is recommending reduces the bonus of the ferry drivers from over £20 a week to a flat £6 incorporated into the hourly rate.
The renegotiation of the bonus was brought about by a change in the work pattern.
According to reports from members, Buckle told the branch meeting that the existing bonus was too high.
Then, having negotiated a substantially reduced rate, Buckle argued the entire employer's case, (backed up by the threat of redundancy if the offer was rejected) adding a few further points of his own, in a leaflet to the drivers
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SOCIALIȘT PRESS, Wednesdey 14th July