Derbyshire tippermen demand 15% increase
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• Tippermen working at 10 Derbyshire quarries are demanding a 15% rate increase from quarry owner Tilcon, partly as a result of the 15% Budget increase in dery duty.
They are also angry that a 5% surcharge on fuel, which Tilcon agreed to pay after a dispute in October, was dropped in January. According to the operators, fuel prices have never gone back to their pre-Gulf Crisis level.
Today (18 April) the tippermen are meeting Tilcon at Ballidon quarry, one of many where drivers went on strike over three weeks last autumn in a fight for better rates.
A group of 15 hauliers will represent the 100 operators who work out of 10 local quarries. Many belong to the National Hauliers Association which organised October's strike action. The meeting will not have official status — the NHA is still governed by a court injunction won by Tarmac, one of several quarry owners hit in the strike. • One of the hauliers told CM that as well as fuel costs the 15% demand also reflects a lack of increases in recent years. Last June the quarry owners applied a 7% rise, which the operators say was the first since June 1985. "We've allowed the situation to slip into one where we've fallen way behind," CM was told. "We haven't contributed to inflation at all over the last six years — the whole industry needs an improvement in rates."