Fuel tanker drivers' strike plans threaten to bring UK to a halt

The drivers may take industrial action later in the year unless job losses, pay cuts and "constant reorganisation" are halted.

Unite, the country's biggest union has called a special summit to consider what action to take after warning that morale among their 3,000 members in the sector was at an all-time low. The union wrote to supermarket chains selling petrol, oil companies and other firms warning that workers were being "forced" towards conflict.

National officer Ron Webb said yesterday: "We have consistently warned the oil employers that their strategy of attacking wages and squeezing more and more out of their drivers but giving them less and less in return will backfire.

"Unfortunately, they have not listened so now 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."

Unite claim that the greater use of alternative contractors willing to under-cut other employers was driving down wages and hitting conditions of employment.