Bradford busmen angered by pay retreat
1970Martin Zarrop Read the scan at ETOL (PDF) →Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: headlines and words can be misread, and a caption or advert can run into the text. For anything you quote, read the scan.
BY A WORKERS PRESS CORRESPONDENT FEELING is running high amongst Bradford's municipal busmen against the retreat on their £21-a-week pay claim.
Transport and General Workers' Union members meet tonight and it is expected that there will be considerable criticism of the role played by their local branch leadership in the retreat.
Many busmen are extremely bitter about a recommendation to settle for a meagre five hours bonus - after 12 months service, a driver, gets 7s 1ld an hour—with 'strings'.
One of the conditions was that all drivers and conductors should make up log-sheets for 15 minutes each day.
But the quarter hour booking-on time is no longer allowed, so that the bonus actually amounts to only 37 hours for a five-day week!
If a busman misses a day's duty he loses a further hour. closing of the cotton mills nad resulted in an increase in the standard of living.
'Some wages are less than my grant,' he shouted.
To the loudest applause of the evening, Powell retorted: 'Don't talk : too loudly about your college grant.' Returning later to education policy, he argued strongly against comprehensive education.
"There is a growing demand for selection, he said.
'Elitism? Of course it is!
The production of an elite benefits everybody?
LEGAL REFORM Throughout the meeting, there was only one brief mention of trade union legislation—'Maybe the trade unions have a lot else to answer for. The legal framework cries out for reform'and Tory immigration policy was covered with 'I leave that to the judgment of my fellow countrymen'.
A demonstration outside the hall of 50 members of the Socialist Unity Movement and the Wolverhampton AntiRacialist Campaign shouting 'Racialism out' were controlled by a large contingent of police ably assisted by Alsatian dogs.