Tanker Drivers Could Ballot

Thousands of fuel tanker drivers could take industrial action later this year unless job losses and pay cuts in the sector are halted, Unite has warned.

Unite has written to oil companies and supermarket chains that sell fuel claiming its members are being "forced" towards conflict.


Unite claims morale among its 3,000 members in the sector has plummeted.

Unite blames the increasing use of alternative contractors in the sector - which it claims are willing to "undercut" other employers - for forcing down wages and undermining conditions of employment.

Unite National Officer Ron Webb said the union had cautioned oil employers that "attacking wages and squeezing more and more out of their drivers but giving them less and less" would backfire.

"We are at a very dangerous moment for this sector. In my 15 years as a negotiator for this sector I have never witnessed such low morale among the drivers," he said.

Ron Webb said tanker drivers were highly specialist workers who were vital to the UK economy.

He said the drivers were employed by some of the most "profitable companies in the land," and that all they wanted was a wage "which reflects their hard work and professionalism".