Culture wars? Bristol's colour bar dispute of 1963
It is true that white bus workers were hardly well treated. And it is too easy today for middle-class commentators today to underrate the bad working conditions that white busworkers had suffered after the war.
Shifts were different every week. Split duty meant going to work at 6:30-9am then at 11:45 to 2pm and then back home, before going back to work again at 3:30-6pm. Some of the shifts were over 12 hours.
Overtime was crucial to what were pretty meagre wages. As one busman told me:"[Overtime] could put your wages anywhere up to two or three times, which is a big thing. It was at least more than half of your wages."
So in theory, any sudden influx of a new supply of labour would jeopardise the ability of existing workers to earn overtime. Authoritarian management hardly helped smooth the way toward good race relations since workers were rarely if ever consulted about the recruitment of new labour. As Ron Nethercott, the then Regional Manager of the TGWU remarked:
"to be perfectly frank the (union) branch had never had a chance to discuss and make a decision on who or what should be employed."
Yet because conditions were so unattractive, white busworkers were leaving in droves by the 60s. So the reluctance to work with black employees could not be completely explained away by worries about job security and overtime.
As Jack Hodge explained:
"we had a branch of 2,000 strong, drivers and conductors. Our changeover of staff was working out on average at 600 per year so you can appreciate that in three years we had a complete change of staff and that was going on for years…colossal… Cause let's face it in those days nobody wanted to be a busman! Nobody wanted to be anything to do with working shift late turns! Puttin up the abuse of the travelling public!
At no time did the management come to us as a union and discuss that the only way of encouraging service on the road was by implementing the people that they were opposed to (i.e. black workers). Never at any time was there any discussions (sic) with the trade unions…on how to… (sort out) the lack of potential employees.
And it wasn't until the lad, young Guy Bailey went down and made application that we realised we had a problem."
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