from a Transport correspondent In a bid to break the six-week strike over the Birmingham differential claim by the TGWU for drivers, Millichamp Haulage Ltt, of Stechford last week handed letters to its 22 drivers telling them that, if they did not report for work within 24 hours, they would be regarded as having dismissed themselves, None of the drivers reported for duty, 2nd two days later they were sent their cards, The firm is trying to recruit new staff, but the -TGWU is expected to "black" the firms It in explaining the firm's action, Mr. Re Millichamp, managing director, told the Birmingham Mail, "At a meeting some weeks ago 11 Midland haulage firms heard Mrs A.D. Law (the TGWU Birmingham regional trade group secretary) demand £2 per week on the basic rates He intimated that if this was not agreed he would ask for £3 instead, and did so, This would have meant increases of £4 per week because of the increase in overtime. The firms rejected the claim but said they would accept the decision of national negotiations. Mr. Law insisted that the claim should be dealt with locally. The drivers employed by five or six of the firms came out, All except those employed by us came back eventually....Our London manager was told by a shop steward that the strike would continue at one firm and unless the. claim was met they. would break the firm, That firm was presumably us." In a letter to the journal of the Road Haulage Association, Motor Transport, the secretary of the West Midland area of the RHA bitterly accused Mr, Law of encouraging the continuation of the strike "by the collection of money for distribution to the strikers." Mr. Law's activities and "agitation" are a "betrayal of the principles of the organisation of which he is a servant" this representative of the employers adds. For me it is highly refreshing to hear employers! representatives talk like this about a union official, It shows that he must be doing his job! Editorial note: in next week's issue we will be carrying material by Mre Law arguing the case for higher wages for drivers.
One specific factor aiding the overcoming of alienation and strengthening workers! control is the right to autonomous income distribution urged by one Mr. M. Drenjamin in another article in the same journal. The author, after examining some of the organisational problems connected with workers in individual enterprises determining their own incomes, suggests bringing existing statutory regulations into line in order to reach that situation in which "“enterprises...would be free to keep their books in the way that suits their needs." The two article referred to above are illustrative of the searching for new forms through which the demands for greater workers! control can be exercised that make up the continually shifting nature of Yugoslavia's planning system, Not all the problems can be solved, nor all the demands met within the present socio-political framework of Yugoslav society, but that gains are beinz made and that even the bureaucracy is searching for new methods in a progressive direction, cannot be denied. These are promising signs for the future,
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