Unions ‘holding Christmas hostage’

Unite threatens to cut economy’s ‘blood supply’ with biggest lorry strike since 1979

UNION leaders were accused of threatening to “hold Christmas hostage” after they raised the prospect of co-ordinated lorry strikes unless drivers are granted higher pay and better conditions.

Unite, the UK’S largest union, has threatened to launch the largest lorry drivers’ strike since the Winter of Discontent in 1979 by balloting thousands of supermarket and delivery drivers.

Last night, a spokesman for the Department of Transport accused unions of threatening to “hold Christmas hostage” adding that any mass walkout would “damage the work being done to restore supply chains at this vital time of year”.

Union bosses said the supply chain crisis had given them the “power” to hold the country to ransom as fears grow that Christmas will be afflicted by food shortages.

Adrian Jones, the national officer for road transport at Unite, which represents about 50,000 HGV drivers, said drivers were demanding a “firm commitment” from the Government for truck stops with lavatories and catering facilities, as well as an end to temporary rules allowing drivers to work up to 10 hours a day.

Unite is also demanding that haulage companies offer fair and equal pay for long-serving drivers with new starters now being offered salaries of up to £50,000 a year.

“Drivers have had enough,” Mr Jones said. “Our members need proper facilities, fair pay and respect.

“HGV drivers are the blood in the body of our economy. We will not hesitate to cut that supply off if the Government and the employers refuse to do what is necessary.”

Mr Jones said Unite would be prevented from launching a single national strike under labour laws requiring unions to register disputes with individual employers. But union leaders were discussing plans to sidestep the rules by co-ordinating strikes across the sector to cause maximum disruption, he said.

It comes after Sharon Graham, Unite’s new leader, vowed to operate “on the edge of the law” to defend her members’ interests after winning the race to succeed Len Mccluskey in August.

In recent weeks Unite has declared a series of victories over pay and conditions as the HGV driver crisis has steadily worsened. The union represents drivers for major supermarkets as well as delivery firms such as DHL.

Yesterday the union announced it had secured a “significant” pay rise for hundreds of lorry drivers employed at one of Sainsbury’s main distribution hubs after threatening strike action.

Staff at the DHL site near the Dartford Crossing, which supplies the supermarket chain, had vowed to walk out in a dispute over pay.

This week Unite also said it had secured a victory for drivers on a Heinz distribution contract in Wigan, with many seeing their earnings increase by more than 25 per cent.

Any co-ordinated strike action by lorry drivers across the country would likely be the largest since January 1979, when more than 1.7million workers took action against James Callaghan’s government and eventually won pay increases of up to 20 per cent. Today, only about 15 per cent of the 320,000 HGV workers in the UK are unionised.

A Government spokesman said: “It would be reckless for unions to hold Christmas hostage and damage the work being done to restore supply chains at this vital time of year.

“We are pleased employers are working towards long-term solutions through improved testing and hiring, with better pay and working conditions, and will continue to support them to do so.”

Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak insisted that there will be a “good amount of Christmas presents available” this year despite the supply chain issues.

Speaking to the BBC in Washington after meeting finance ministers from the G7, the Chancellor sought to reassure Britons as people begin to think about shopping for Christmas.

He said: “We are doing absolutely everything we can to mitigate some of these challenges. They are global in nature so we can’t fix every single problem, but I feel confident there will be good provision of goods for everybody.

“I’m confident there will be a good amount of Christmas presents available for everyone to buy.”

DOMINIC CUMMINGS has accused Boris Johnson of shelving plans to protect the supply chain in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

The former chief adviser claimed the Prime Minister “actively chose” not to reshape Downing Street to deal with a future energy crisis or shortage of fuel.

Writing on social media, Mr Cummings said he had begun work with officials last spring on Project Defend, a plan to beef up the UK’S resilience to global economic shocks.

But he claimed that after his departure from Downing Street in November the plans were “downgraded”.

“I asked a brilliant official to get a team to do a quick survey of possible supply chain problems over the next 18 months as a prelude to deeper work. It was called Project Defend. It involved officials and external experts. It included issues like energy supplies.

“The country is in another mess because after the Vote Leave team left, this work was downgraded by the PM, there remains no institutional locus for systems thinking … COBR remains totally inadequate, and the PM is trying to be his own chief of staff, head of policy and director of communications with predictably disastrous consequences.”

According to reports from last May, Project Defend was intended to end Britain’s reliance on China for vital medical supplies, as well as assessing the national resilience of “essential supplies”.

A Whitehall source said it had been tasked with “planning for future events – no matter what they might be”.