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Weekend bus users hit by 48-hour strike
Evening Standard12.09.08
Bus passengers face a weekend of chaos as thousands of drivers strike over a new pay deal.
The strike, which started at 3am today, will affect 137 services across the capital.
Drivers from First Capital East and First Centrewest will be out for 48 hours and Metrobus workers are planning a 24-hour walkout.
The industrial action began after talks between management of the companies and union bosses broke down.
Drivers voted to reject a four per cent pay rise and are asking for a basic rate of £30,000 a year for a 38-hour week. In a ballot of 28,000, 90 per cent voted to strike.
John Griffiths, an official at Metrobus, said: "Our members are determined to achieve a fair settlement and unless the company makes a realistic pay offer, strike action will continue and cause significant disruption to bus services."
Transport for London said it was working to keep disruption to a minimum, but warned passengers to check their routes and check for updates before travelling.
Reader views (6)
Sorry Andy but Ken never gave into strike action which mainly came from the RMT.
I notice that Boris is not doing anything given it was his party that split london's bus service into competing bus companies and therefore introduced differential pay rates for the same job.
I notice that bus companies are reporfting record profits so why should the drivers lose out?
- Melvyn, Canvey Island, Essex
Every time I've visited London, the bus drivers have been courteous to both passengers and other road users. I suppose there might be some poor drivers, but treating them like professionals, and compensating them accordingly, would give them even more incentive to act like professionals.
In any case, £30k hardly seems excessive in an expensive city like London. Particularly not in a job where you are vulnerable to attack and abuse, and responsible for the safety of your passengers.
- Amanda, Newcastle, UK
£30,000 isn't a lot for working shifts and week-ends in a high stress job driving a vehicle the size of a small house around London. They should get it (and inflation linking for all time), but only if they enter into a legally binding no-strike deal for the future, and abandon any restrictive practices that they are currently enjoying.
- Nigel, London
Considering the standard of driving that the bus drivers striking in the Ealing area practise, I think they should be fired, not given a pay rise. If they want more pay, they should do overtime.
- Liz, London
£30,000 a year for driving round behind a sheet of protective perspex, and not even having to deal with cash fares any more? Perhaps if any more than a handful of them could drive with any consideration for their passengers and other road users they might deserve it, but many of them are hard-braking lane-hopping maniacs.
No doubt Ken would have applied pressure to the companies to yield to their drivers' demands, but hopefully Boris will have more backbone.
- Andy, London
Once again the unions show that they care for no-one except the selfishness of their members. What they are demanding is unreasonable. Most other industries negotiate individually on wage claims with their employees. Here the unions want all their members to obtain rates of pay at the highest level paid by an individual employer.
It is inflationary and will have to be paid for by already over-stretched members of the public in the long run. Bus Drivers are not badly paid, and this is just an attempt to hold the public to ransom. I am sure in the current economic climate there are other people prepared to do the job at the rates of pay on offer. Let the employers withstand these demands.
- I. Joseph, London, England
