London bus workers vote to strike
Thousands of London bus workers have voted to go on strike over extra payments for working during the Olympic Games.
94% of those that voted in the Unite ballot have backed industrial action and dates could be announced as early as next week – which could be before or even during the London 2012 Olympics.
Unite wants a one off payment of £500 for its 20,000 bus drivers who are now the only public transport workers not getting a London 2012 bonus this summer after deals were done with London Underground, Overground and Docklands Light Railway (DLR) staff.
At least 800,000 extra passengers are predicted to use London’s red buses during the Games which start next month.
Unite says its now giving the 21 London bus operators, including Go Ahead, Stagecoach, London United, Arriva, Metroline, First and Abellio and Transport for London a final opportunity to consider this ‘landslide’ result in favour of strike action before the union announces possible strike dates early next week.
Unite regional secretary for London, Peter Kavanagh, said “There are only seven weeks until the Olympics and the whole world is watching London. It’s a disgrace that London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, and the bus companies have allowed this dispute to get this far. “Our members are only asking for an extra £17 a day which will just about buy you a pint of beer and a portion of fish and chips at the Olympics. “Our members want the Games to be a success but their patience has run out. We have given TfL and the bus operators almost a year to resolve this issue. Every single London transport worker in London will receive a reward to recognise their major contribution to this historic occasion except for London’s bus workers.”
Turnouts across the bus operators averaged 38 per cent – the same percentage turnout that saw Boris Johnson re-elected as Mayor of London.
Transport for London claims the dispute is nothing to do with them as the workers are employed by private companies, but Unite says this is passing the buck: “TfL and the operators can easily get together to resolve this matter and each of them is passing the buck to the other,” says Peter Kavanagh.
The London region of Unite will be seeking support from every region and section of the union, and throughout the trade union movement, for this crucial dispute. Shiraz Socialist will keep you informed.
Jim Denham said,
June 11, 2012 at 9:02 am
The hypocrisy of TfL bosses exposed: http://union-news.co.uk/2012/06/unite-accuses-london-transport-bosses-of-hypocrisy-over-olympics-bus-workers/
Chris said,
June 11, 2012 at 11:56 am
The best analysis I have read on this campaign yet. From Solidarity Forever.
With over ten-thousand voting in favour of a ballot on industrial action, Unite the union has raised stakes in the campaign to secure a £500 bonus payment for the 28,000 bus workers in London. The demand for the bonus is just. The increased revenue the bus companies will make during the Olympics will more than cover the cost of a bonus in recognition of the even more stress and demands placed on bus workers. However, this issue raises far wider questions. The campaign has placed on the agenda the more important issue of the steady deterioration of bus workers wages and working conditions.
London Busworkers are not stupid. The call for a one off bonus cannot conceal the fact that for years the employers have been on the offensive whilst the largest union on the buses put up little resistance. Everyone knows that pay and conditions compared to other transport workers, especially on the tube, have grown worse. A number of studies comparing bus drivers’ salaries have shown a significant deterioration in real wages between 2008 and 2012. The achievement of the bonus will be great, but once the Olympics are over the situation will be as bad as before the games.
The Olympic 500 campaign states bus workers should to be treated the same as other transport workers. The question is why is it the train drivers union ASLEF can get a deal for a £1000 Bonus on the tube? Why have RMT secured a bonus of up to £2,500 for workers on the Docklands Light Railway, £500 for Network Rail and £600 on London Overground? It is because the employers respect these unions; it is because they have repeatedly stood up for their members. It is a different story on the buses.
When RMT rep’s Eamonn Lynch and Arwyn Thomas were sacked RMT responded with industrial and legal action to get the victimised rep’s reinstated. In contrast, when Abdul Omer Mohsin the Unite convenor on Sovereign was victimised in March 2010, Unite refused to hold a strike ballot despite workplace votes supporting action. Employers see such retreats as a green light to press ahead with attacks.
Since the London wide strike on pay in 2008 was called off, there has been pay deals that have been beneath inflation or amounted to a pay freeze – that is pay cuts in real terms.
The sacked Sovereign convenor had negotiated a pay deal on parity with London United that would have seen a £4,000 pa increase over the following years. After he was dismissed, Unite Regional Industrial Officer Wayne King agreed to the annulment of the deal. When Sovereign drivers voted to strike against the 2011 pay offer the same union bureaucrat refused to announce or implement the ballot result due on 27th December 2011. At Metroline the same month the Boxing Day pay deal saw drivers suffer a 28.2% pay cut compared to what they were paid in Boxing Day in 2010.
Meanwhile workers are constantly being divided into different pay and conditions. On Stagecoach, drivers are on four different rates, none of them any good. Metroline imposed
two-year contracts on new starters from 1st January 2012 on £9.50 per-hour less than existing drivers. The companies are seeking to squeeze out those on better pay. Metroline just ignored the recognised union who withheld this information. No wonder Jaspal Singh CEO of Metroline can boast of the ‘close and supportive working relationship with UNITE the Union’.
RMT have refused to accept the Bonus offered because management want to link it to worsening the conditions of tube-workers. The largest union on the buses refuse to link improving conditions to the campaign for a bonus!
At the UNITE London bus workers conference in February which (excluded any critics) a leading official said – ‘if we don’t get this right we are in trouble’. It is worrying that such officials see the issue as one of an apparatus interested in self-preservation instead of promoting members interests. Now the same bureaucrats who oversaw years of degradation of conditions are declaring ‘London’s bus workers have been treated as second-citizens for too long.’
Whatever the motives of union bureaucrats if they are prepared to launch a fight for a bonus then it is to be welcomed. However, they should not take bus workers for fools. If UNITE is serious about taking on a well-organised block of bus companies, TfL and the government then it should stop attacking other unions and support a united campaign run from the bottom up with all workers full participation.
Furthermore, what is most important is not just a one-off-bonus, but the desperate need for a London wide wage campaign, around a comprehensive claim for what is necessary to lead a decent life. To achieve this means recognising we cannot rely on stooges and bureaucrats, we can no longer continue on the same old way, we need an effective independent union that can stand up for bus workers interests.