UK, all about the clash between government and hauliers over petrol chaos
What happens in the UK amid shortages of truckers, problems in the petrol supply chain and buying panic. The point of Daniele Meloni
Owner "the government deploys the army" is certainly out of place, but in the end Boris Johnson had to select 150 Royal Army drivers, put them on standby and subject them to at least 5 days of training as a precaution: their use could be used to make in the face of the chaos generated by the lack of hauliers which, in turn, has generated problems in the fuel supply chain across England.
The scenes of the queues of drivers that have occurred in recent days in the country are the children of the alarm given by the press – anti-government and not only – which have triggered panic among motorists. Both Johnson and Transport Minister Grant Shapps were quick to say that there is no gasoline shortage problem and that the situation will be back to normal soon. At least that's the hope of the Tory executive. So far the measures taken have proved unsatisfactory. Both the "visa" for 5,000 non-EU hauliers to tackle the problem, and the increase in the working hours of road hauliers – welcomed by only 517 people out of the 300,000 drivers in force in England – seemed to be decisive. More luck seems to have speeded up the issuing of licenses to truck drivers, which have been stopped for some time due to Covid.
Furthermore, tensions between the government, employers' associations and trade unions are skyrocketing. And this only amplifies the problem. After last Thursday's Zoom meeting between the Cabinet and the Association of Road Haulers (RHA) someone gave a tip to TV and newspapers about the difficulties of some distributors such as BP and Tesco in getting fuel to the stations due to lack of staff. Initially, the pumps that remained closed were just over 1% according to the Petrol Retailers Association, but after 4 days of long lines at the stations some grades of fuel are now 60 to 80% out of stock at some retailers. Government sources suspect that the leaders of the RHA were leaking the news to the newspapers for political reasons: for some time the British Conftrasporti has been on a war footing with the Johnson government because it believes that Brexit has penalized the sector, which prospered thanks to employment of low-cost and inadequate wage hauliers from Eastern Europe. If we then add that the man suspected of the "leak", the tip, is the head of Public Affairs of the RHA, Rod McKenzie, former executive of the BBC and always enemy of Brexit and the impact of new migration policies on labor costs , the anger of the Tories can be well understood. McKenzie reported to the correspondent of ITV – the third UK television network – the words used by the government in response to the intervention of its boss, Duncan Buchanon, policy director of the Association, during the virtual meeting.
The trade unions have also entered the affair. After seeing the traffic generated on British roads, the transport union (GMB), and the General Confederation (TUC), asked the government to extend homeworking in the workplace, to free the lanes, occupied by those who could also work from home. But the heart of the matter is another. Two other acronyms – Unite and Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) – declared themselves disappointed by Johnson's choice to grant visas to 5,000 non-EU hauliers and not to focus on British workers at higher wages to get out of the crisis. During an event on the sidelines of the Labor party conference in Brighton in recent days, Mick Lynch, secretary general of the RMT, allegedly stated that “despite the Tory government's rhetoric about the forgotten by globalization, there are entire communities in England that should be employed with decent wages without recourse to personnel from all over Europe ”.
Finally, Brexit, the master key to explain – in a superficial way – every problem that afflicts the United Kingdom. The same Chancellor in pectore of the Federal Republic of Germany, Olaf Scholz, brought it up, saying that it was London's exit from the EU that caused the chaos. At the same time, he added that even in Germany – which remains the pillar of Brussels – about 60,000 drivers are missing. The Social Democratic leader seems to want to confirm the model based on low wages and the use of foreign labor at low costs on which the economy of the most advanced countries of the Union is based. Minister Shapps, on the other hand, said that it is thanks to Brexit that the country has been able to change some regulations in the sector, which have made it possible to issue licenses and visas for truckers in a very short time. Brexit, always Brexit, very strongly Brexit: but the reality on the ground is much more complex than its fetish.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/regno-unito-benzina-autisti-cosa-succede/ on Tue, 28 Sep 2021 09:20:08 +0000.