Tanker drivers delivering fuel to petrol pumps across the UK have voted overwhelmingly for strike action in a dispute over safety and growing instability in the fuel industry, and strike action is expected in April.
Members of Unite working for five major fuel distribution firms delivering fuel for petrol stations including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, BP, Shell and Esso, backed a call for strike action by an average of 69 per cent.
Turnouts for voting across the five companies averaged 77.7 per cent.
Unite urged the employers to meet their responsibility and talk meaningfully about establishing reasonable minimum standards that secure the stability of this vital national industry.
Attempts by the union to progress a forum have been thwarted by employers’ unrelenting attacks on drivers’ terms and conditions.
Tanker drivers work in an increasingly fragmented and pressurised industry where corners are being cut on safety and training in a bid to squeeze profits and win contracts.
Drivers face growing job insecurity as a result of the contract ‘merry-go-round’ and a ‘beat the clock’ culture has flourished with drivers forced to meet ever shorter delivery deadlines.
Final salary pension schemes have been swapped for inferior money purchase schemes, and some workers are now on their sixth pension in as many years, with 10 to 15 years left to go in the industry.
Commenting, Diana Holland, Unite Assistant General Secretary, said: ‘These votes send a clear message throughout the industry and should prompt all the major companies to get around the table to establish minimum standards.
‘This is not about pay – this is about ensuring that high safety and training standards are maintained, so that our communities are safe.
‘It is about a simple measure, the creation of an industry-wide bargaining forum. It is about bringing fairness and stability back to an essential national industry.
‘No longer can it be acceptable that oil giants rake in profits, while shirking their responsibility for the stable supply of a national commodity.
‘The measures we are proposing are reasonable, responsible and sensible. We urge them to act and listen.’
Cabinet Secretary Maude’s threats that army drivers are to be used to try to break the strike must be met by the TUC calling out the whole trade union movement in a general strike that will bring down the Tory-LibDem coalition government.
