U.K. Fuel-Tanker Drivers Avert Strike After Vote, Union Says

Fuel-tanker drivers in the U.K. have averted strike action that threatened to leave gasoline stations dry by voting to accept the offer from employers, according to Unite, the country’s largest labor union.

Members of the union working for seven major oil distribution firms, voted by 51 percent in favor of proposals including the introduction of an industrywide accreditation covering health safety and training, Unite said today in a statement on its website.

About 2,000 drivers delivering gasoline and diesel to 90 percent of the nation’s 8,700 filling stations would have been involved in industrial action after they voted in March to strike and the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, or Acas, was called in to mediate.

The government was prepared to use the army to ensure deliveries to forecourts. About 1,400 military drivers were trained in the event of a strike, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said today in an e-mailed statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nidaa Bakhsh in London at nbakhsh@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net