Political Commentary By JAN US Square Peg• in a Round Jigsaw .
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All is Not Well in the Rank and File of the Road Haulage Executive, Says Our Contributor. Numerous Efforts Are Made to Tell Workers• What Part They Play in the Organization, But These Blandishments Are Resisted.
pOSSIBLY it is my imagination, but it does seem as it the Road Haulage Executive is no longer so glad as it used to be to pass on information about• its activities to the public. This particularly applies to the divisional organization Mass meetivs of members of the staff are not infrequently held in various parts of the country, but for an account of what goes on one must depend more and more upon the occasional indiscretions of somebody who happened to be present. -There is, of course, no reason why these staff sessions should not be held in camera, but the procedure contrasts markedly with the evangelical zeal with which at other times the Executive lays bare the inmost secrets of its organization. It is never too much trouble to prepare a complicated family tree, showing exactly who controls what, and who is responsible to whom, from the most humble official up to the grandfather of them all. If one asks. however, what is discussed when one , branch of the growing family holds a reunion in some seaside resort—so eminently suitable for reunions, if not for operating centres—the answer is nothing like so glib
Denuded of Executives There is no lack of rumours to fill the gap. To begin with, it is even suggested that the date and place of
some divisional meetings are kept secret. One story tells of strict instructions that cars carrying personnel for one meeting should on no account travel farther than an inland town 20 miles away, the rest of the journey having to be made by public transport. Other comments are of district offices so denuded of executives attending a meeting, that for two whole days traders were unable to receive answers to the simplest inquiries. The latest tale is of drivers having been instructed to spy on their free-enterprise colleagues, with the ultimate object of filching traffic.
Alien Dispensation Almost certainly, the meetings are partly devoted to " pep" talks. All is not well with the rank and file of the R.H.E. Workers taken over with the acquired undertakings find the alien dispensation not to their liking. There have already been strikes, and the threat of many more.
In last week's issue of "The Commercial Motor " the opinions of trade-union leaders in the Midlands were given on the subject of relations with the Executive. These revealed a melancholy state of affairs brought about only by nationalization. Conditions that did not, and probably could not, exist under free-enterprise control included the remoteness of the Executive from day-to-day operations, difficulty in discovering in whose hands specific responsibilities lay, and lack of sympathy by some group managers who dislike nationalization.
Against this background of unrest, the complacent tone adopted by the in its many communications to its employees may seem a little unrealistic. Certain 02. comments by a contributor to the "Advertiser's Weekly," however, provide a possible explanation.
The article refers to one of the British Road Services advertisements in the Press, Showing, by means of a strip cartoon, what happens when a manufacturer (name not given) arranges for the R.H.E to deliver 1,000 television sets (immediately!) to 194 shops in 44 different towns. The pay-off"picture gives the following remarkable extract from the customer's alleged "glowing letteC: "In all our dealings with road transport companies and units we can safely say this service has never been equalled"
The writer makes no comment on this strangely equivocal. tribute. He does suggest, however, with some acuteness that the advertisement is directed just as much to the employees within the R.H.E. as to the
customers outside. In other words, the Executive is adopting the standard propaganda device of saying that all is well so frequently and in so many different ways ' that in the end people come to believe it.
Freudian Interpretation A momentary uneasiness may be detected beneath the glossy surface of some of the other publications addressed by the R.H.E. to its workers. A book10 entitled "Where YOU Fit In" compares each individual employee to one of the bits in a jigsaw puzzle. The interpretation of this symbolism may best be left to the disciples of Freud. It is worth noting, however—as Freud would doubtless have done—that the analogy presupposes and confirms the existence of the puzzle.
The R.H.E. would not find it worthwhile telling the worker where he fits in, if there were not a strong possibility that he fits in badly. Other employers have not found it necessary to pose the labour problem in that form. The free-enterprise hauliers and passenger operators may at times have staff troubles, but their drivers and other men are never at a loss to know what part they play in the firm's organization.
Knowing Their Place Railway workers, on the whole, have a strong claim to the distressing distinction of being the worst-paid section of the community; but, to use a phrase somewhat discredited these days, they know their place. Each man, from the wheel-tapper to the signalman, from the porter to the engine-driver, from the keeper of the level-crossing to the clerk, is a vital link in the chain, an essential piece in the puzzle, or however else one chooses to describe it.
Perhaps, after all, the instinct of the road haulage worker to resist the blandishments of the R.H.E. is sound. The piece in the puzzle is only one metaphor away from the cog in the machine The men of the road have chosen their life because of its individual • character, its freedom from rules and restrictions. Can it be that this provides the most efficient and economical transport system, in spite of what the nationalizers say?