Philip Pank, Transport Correspondent
It sees its bright yellow rescue vehicles as the fourth emergency service, but the AA became the latest victim of industrial unrest yesterday as patrol staff voted to strike for the first time in the organisation’s 105-year history.
If talks fail to avert a walkout over changes to the company’s pension plan, its 15 million members face an uncertain wait at the roadside.
Independent garages might be the only winners as the AA plans to hire private recovery patrols in a contingency plan to avoid leaving motorists stranded. “Our priority will be the best level of service for our members and we will use everything available to deliver that,” a spokesman said.
The Highways Agency said that a strike would be unlikely to affect safety on the motorways and highways because they were obliged to remove any vehicle causing an obstruction.
It could yet, however, tarnish one of the most trusted brands in Britain and hit the profits of the dominant roadside recovery operator. The AA employs nearly 3,000 patrol officers, 2,400 of whom are members of the Independent Democratic Union.
Alistair Maclean, national secretary of the IDU, said: “It is whether or not they [the management] are willing to have a fight and damage the brand name or look for an agreement”.
The union said that 57 per cent of its AA employees voted in favour of a strike on a turnout of 87 per cent. Mr Maclean added: “We need to get back into negotiations to see if we can resolve this. If not, we will set dates for action”.
The AA, founded in 1905 as the Automobile Association by a group of motoring enthusiasts to help drivers to evade police speed traps, said that it was willing to talk to avoid a strike.
The group was a rare beneficiary of the bleakest winter for 30 years, having attended half a million breakdowns during the snowy weather. It said that the union was premature in calling a strike ballot because consultation on changes to its pension plan did not end until April 23.
“We are offering them a good deal,” Edmund King, president of the AA, told The Times. “Quite frankly, if our patrols talked to friends and relatives in other pension schemes they would be told it is a pretty good deal”.
In November the company proposed a 2.5 per cent cap on pensionable earnings on its final-salary scheme to try to plug a pension deficit of £228 million. The union said that its members stood to lose thousands of pounds from the changes. It accused the private equity groups Permira, CVC and Charterhouse, which own the AA, of squeezing hundreds of millions of pounds of profits from the company at their expense.
The AA said that the union had a slim mandate because only 48 per cent of those ballotted had supported strike action. It accused the union of abandoning negotiations. “We have not walked away from the table. Our door is always open,” Mr King said.
The GMB union, which represents workers at AA call centres, is also preparing to ballot its members over the pension dispute.
Times Online
