'We want Sir Richard' union row by CM reporter
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AN UNPRECEDENTED row in which the three main unions within London Transport are calling for the retention of Sir Richard Way as chairman blew up last week. The Labourcontrolled Greater London Council has announced (CM last week) that Sir Richard was to be replaced at the end of the year by Mr Kenneth Robinson, 63, a former Socialist Minister of Health.
The London Transport members of the Transport and General Workers Union, the Transport and Salaried Staffs Association and the National Union of Railwaymen are all pressing the GLC to ask Sir Richard to stay on as chairman for a further five-year term.
It is understood that Sir Richard has been offered a top management post in another industry but that details are not yet finalized. He told the GLC in January that he might not be able to continue in the job after his contract expired on December 31 and confirmed this in March.
Asked if there were circumstances in which he might remain chairman, Sir Richard said: "It is very gratifying that the unions want me to stay. It is not that I do not want to continue but there are factors that could make it impossible to do so".
Sir Richard's attitude to the GLC was summed up in an article in the London Evening Standard earlier this month. He indicated then that he despaired of what he regarded as "continual interference by people who don't understand the difference between policy and management". In the same article Mrs Evelyn Dennington, chairman of the GLC's transport committee, indicated how deep the rift between County Hall and LT's Broadway hq is by saying: "We want someone over there who is used to how politics goes — someone used to looking at life as life really is".
The transport unions hold 60-year-old Sir Richard in such high esteem because of the manner in which he has demanded more pay, better housing, lower mortgage rates, and his readiness for consultation at all times. Eleven of the 13 LT branches of the TSSA in LT supported, a motion at their annual conference calling on the GLC to retain Sir Richard's "genius", The motion was not heard at the conference but is to be referred to the executive.
The TGWU's London district secretary, Mr Charles Young, has said: "We have never heard of a nationalised industry speak out on employees' behalf as much as Sir Richard. He has done much to boost morale".