Shop stewards picket their own union hq
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by Jahn Darker • Differences between Mr Jackson Moore, general secretary of United Road Transport Workers, and Mr John Stevenson, district organizer of Region 13, based at Stockport, are to be investigated as a matter of urgency by a special committee of the union, I understand.
This follows an extraordinary incident at a recent meeting of URTU's executive committee, to which Mr Stevenson had been summoned.
A group of committee members from Region 13 lobbied the union's headquarters at Chorhon-cum-Hardy and when Mr Stevenson arrived he was prevented from entering the building.
At one stage in the long picket by shop steward supporters of Mr Stevenson, the police were called when executive committee members were unable to get to their cars to proceed home.
Mr Stevenson, I understand, told his supporters he would go into the meeting on condition that Mr Jackson Moore first met the delegation from Region 13. This the general secretary refused to do.
At 12.30 p.m., two hours after the time of Mr Stevenson's appointment with the executive committee he appeared before the meeting in the company of Mr M. Durant.
Mr Brian Macdonald, chairman of Region 13, and a member of URTU's executive corn
mittee, told CM that president Len Bateman had advised the delegation that the correct procedure would have been to make representations by letter to the executive. A member of the delegation insisted that a letter had been sent to headquarters but inquiries by URTU staff failed to reveal any trace of receipt.
Mr Macdonald said the atmosphere at the committee meeting at one stage reminded him of "Part I Orders" in the Army. Region 13 was felt by some executive committee members to be troublesome; there was even talk of discarding the region en bloc if it continued to be so.
"We are satisfied that John Stevenson has done his level best for his members in an area not noted for high pay for lorry drivers," said Mr Macdonald, "The employers hate his guts and it's a pity some of the union's armchair officers do not try to emulate him.
"If action is taken which we feel is unfair then Region 13 would leave URTU en bloc and I would be the first to resign.
"We can call upon 300 to 400 militant members to support us at any time. I hope, when our shop stewards meet president Len Bateman, that these unfortunate and unnecessary problems can be resolved. We don't expect our union officers to behave like reactionary employers and we don't intend that they shall do so."