Great Britain: strikes are spreading in transportation and logistics

Very few companies now distribute their own goods and products through their own fleet of vehicles. Instead, these services are sub-contracted out to dedicated providers after a process of competitive tendering. The proposed strike by oil tanker drivers earlier in 2012 indicated that neither the oil refineries nor the retailers had their own distribution vehicles for the drivers’ ire was directed at their employers for increasing the pace of their work with deleterious consequences for safety.
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verage over the employer. Consequently, these strikes’ contribution to the number of workers involved and the number of days not worked is small but particularly “efficient.” Within the same category has been the growth in strike action by workers employed by transport, distribution and logistics companies. The reason is simple: pressure from the client on delivering the product makes it impossible for the company to allow a conflict which might cause a delay. By Gregor Gall, Research Professo

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