Southend Corporation Transport
The 1967 Strike |
| Industrial action has fortunately been comparatively
rare in Southend, with only occasional short lived disputes and of
course the General Strike of 1926. By far the most serious dispute
was the bitter five and a half week strike in the winter of 1967.
The dispute started after a breakdown in national negotiations led
the TGWU to instruct municipal busmen to ban overtime and the carriage
of standing passengers. This action could be expected to have a considerable
effect in Southend (a shortage of crews meant that there was a heavy
reliance on overtime) but the decision to start the industrial action
was not implemented for some weeks, giving the Corporation management
time to prepare themselves. The overtime ban came into effect on Friday
November 3 and immediately management acted by turning over operation
of the 17, which then ran from Temple Sutton to Eastwood, to Super
Coaches of Upminster; seven private coaches were also hired with drivers
for schools contracts. This action was seen by the union as deliberate
provocation and the dispute escalated into an all out strike the following
Monday, the 7th. Eastern National's local crews then came out in sympathy
and the longer distance EN routes turned short at the coordination
boundary. |
| The Corporation management reacted immediately
to restore a skeleton service. Non union and office staff crewed a
few SCT buses, and the Lowlanders were hastily adapted for OMO (driver
only operation had been legalised for double deckers in July 1966)
- which in the case of these buses was pay as you leave, with no tickets
or change given. Many independent operators were approached to provide
vehicles with crews, and every day more and more buses and coaches
of every size and colour appeared, until there were about 25 independent
vehicles in use everyday! Destinations were shown by yellow and black
cards
and the normal Setright ticket machines were used. In addition to
the hired buses, Southend took on volunteer crews and were eventually
able to put another 25 buses on the road from their own fleet. A service
was maintained on all the main routes which the Corporation normally
operated (but not over EN routes, except for the hospital X90 service)
and duplicated timetables - 11 issues in all, plus one Sunday version
- were produced. Often they were only current for one or two days as
the arrival of more buses enabled the service to be increased. Eventually
about two thirds of the normal revenue was being taken. |
| In many ways it was a very sad time for the
undertaking, affecting morale for a long time afterwards. Feelings
ran high with mass meetings, marches, an emergency full Council meeting
and finally intervention by Harold Wilson's Minister of Labour, Ray
Gunter. On Canvey shots were even fired at buses! The introduction
of private buses was undoubtedly a major factor in the dispute, but
it is also likely that the union were seeking to make a stand in Southend
for the Chairman of the Council's Transport Committee, Norman Harris,
also chaired the municipal employers federation at the time. From
the enthusiasts standpoint it was a period of unparalleled excitement
with an incredible array of vehicles - no one knew quite what would
turn up the next day! |
| The crews eventually agreed to return to work
and the strike ended on Sunday December 17. |
 |
Many thanks to Richard Delahoy for his kind permission
to include textual extracts from his book in this site.
|
©1986-2003 Richard Delahoy and ©1961-2003 SCT61 Pages. All
Rights Reserved.
Page generated 9 Mar 2003 |