A one-time bus driver and lifelong socialist, DOUGIE HARRISON found himself in a capitalist environment when for 27 years he was a non-executive director of Strathclyde’s Buses and First Glasgow, nominated by trades unions to represent the interests of employees. He looks back at why this unique arrangement came to happen and how he was sometimes able to help influence decisions
My 14 years as the economist of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) meant that I had to become something of an expert in the economics of public transport in Scotland. I had always been interested in public transport, believing it vital to human progress decades before today’s widespread concern about climate change.
This had developed into a personal fascination with public transport vehicles. For my first travel to school, I had the pleasure of riding on Edinburgh Corporation’s elegant Shrubhill-built “dome standard” trams, followed by its huge fleet of Metro-Cammell Orion-bodied Leyland Titan PD2/20s after the trams were ended in 1956. I had also supported workers’ control of the companies in which they were employed. This first attracted my serious attention when studying the experience of the Yugoslav economy aroun…
