Bus drivers and supervisors who work for First Group and Metrobus are
going on strike tomorrow - at First Group they're striking for 48
hours, at Metrobus for 24 hours. The strike has been called by the
Unite union (the result of the 2007 merger between Amicus and the
T&GWU), who "want a standard £30,000 rate of pay for drivers across
the bus network" (so says the BBC webpage linked to below).

A list of the affected routes can be found on TfL's website here...
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravel...s/default.html

....and on the BBC London webpages here...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/..._feature.shtml

I don't know whether either company will attempt to run any of their
services using non-union staff - running a skeleton service on certain
routes might be a recipe for more of a disaster than not running a
service at all. Any resources could I suppose be concentrated on
running a



P.S. Been absent from usenet for quite a while (not even lurking),
though I must admit for my sins that I crept back to uk.railway before
I came back here - my excuse is that there's so much going on in the
arena of transport in the metropolis lately (though isn't there
always) that I was wary of getting sucked into some kind of utl black
hole!

Argh, that last post got posted prematurely, as I hadn't finished yet!
(Perhaps my presence here on utl is just not meant to be!). I will
continue...

On 11 Sep, 23:53, Mizter T wrote:
Bus drivers and supervisors who work for First Group and Metrobus are
going on strike tomorrow - at First Group they're striking for 48
hours, at Metrobus for 24 hours. The strike has been called by the
Unite union (the result of the 2007 merger between Amicus and the
T&GWU), who "want a standard £30,000 rate of pay for drivers across
the bus network" (so says the BBC webpage linked to below).

A list of the affected routes can be found on TfL's website here...http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/livetravel...s/default.html

...and on the BBC London webpages here...http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/.../bus_strike_fe...

I don't know whether either company will attempt to run any of their
services using non-union staff - running a skeleton service on certain
routes might be a recipe for more of a disaster than not running a
service at all. Any resources could I suppose be concentrated on
running a ...

....proper service on one or two routes.

I'm intrigued to note that it's only staff at First Group and Metrobus
going on strike, and not at any of the other bus companies (given that
the desire is for a London-wide rate of pay regardless of company).
One wonders if Unite have a particularly strong presence in those two
companies?

If my memory serves me right then First Buses in London does appear to
have a somewhat more turbulent history of industrial relations than
other bus companies. Is the management there more intransigent? Is
there more of a history of union militancy at those garages? Obviously
to an extent those two factors can interplay with each other in a
chicken and egg scenario when trying to work out where it all began.

With regards to the actual issue, well I'm at all clued up on all the
ins and outs of it all, all I will say is that I do think driving a
bus in London is a fairly testing job. But I never find it easy
working out the relative merits of various jobs and what they should
pay.


P.S. Been absent from usenet for quite a while (not even lurking),
though I must admit for my sins that I crept back to uk.railway before
I came back here - my excuse is that there's so much going on in the
arena of transport in the metropolis lately (though isn't there
always) that I was wary of getting sucked into some kind of utl black
hole!


(Perhaps the black hole is sucking me away from utl!)

Mizter T wrote:
Bus drivers and supervisors who work for First Group and Metrobus are
going on strike tomorrow - at First Group they're striking for 48
hours, at Metrobus for 24 hours. The strike has been called by the
Unite union (the result of the 2007 merger between Amicus and the
T&GWU), who "want a standard £30,000 rate of pay for drivers across
the bus network" (so says the BBC webpage linked to below).

The odd thing is that Unite (formed from the merger of Amicus and the
T&HWU), First London and Transport for London all seem to have different
ideas as to when the strike is taking place.

According to First London, it'll be a 48 hour strike from 00:01 today
(Friday) and affect both sides of their London operation (First
CentreWest and First Capital East).

According to Unite, it's a 24 hour strike from 03:00, affecting Metrobus
(who concur with the timing) and First CentreWest.

And according to TfL, strikes MAY take place on Friday and Saturday,
affecting both Metrobus and First London.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see what actually happens in the morning.

Cheers,

Barry

On Sep 11, 11:53 pm, Mizter T wrote:
T&GWU), who "want a standard £30,000 rate of pay for drivers across
the bus network" (so says the BBC webpage linked to below).

30K? Oh is that all. Perhaps they'd like share options while they're
at it?

Bus driving is for retarded cretins, why should they get 30K for doing
a job a trained chimp could do?

B2003

On 12 Sep, 10:01, Boltar wrote:

On Sep 11, 11:53 pm, Mizter T wrote:

T&GWU), who "want a standard £30,000 rate of pay for drivers across
the bus network" (so says the BBC webpage linked to below).

30K? Oh is that all. Perhaps they'd like share options while they're
at it?

Bus driving is for retarded cretins, why should they get 30K for doing
a job a trained chimp could do?


Are you a retarded cretin or a trained chimp?

On Sep 12, 6:21*pm, Mizter T wrote:
On 12 Sep, 10:01, Boltar wrote:

On Sep 11, 11:53 pm, Mizter T wrote:

T&GWU), who "want a standard £30,000 rate of pay for drivers across
the bus network" (so says the BBC webpage linked to below).

30K? Oh is that all. Perhaps they'd like share options while they're
at it?

Bus driving is for retarded cretins, why should they get 30K for doing
a job a trained chimp could do?

Are you a retarded cretin or a trained chimp?


You obviously are a retard and have the brain cells of a chimp to post
a comment like that for all to see!

As a bus driver it takes approxamatley 8 - 12 weeks on meger pay to
actually gain the license and the we have to put up with arseholes
like yourselves on a daily basis, this does not include the black cab
drivers the mini cab drivers and the so called other road users who
seem to enjoy playing russian roulette with a 12 tons bus and then
wonder why the driver gets irrate and when we do have an accident its
always the bus drivers fault that the idiot in the car pulled out in
front of them or cut them up or jump the lights or cut in front of
them.

We run the daily guanlet of abuse from idiot passengers who think you
are tourist information and then get abusive when you cannot help them
plan a route around the country for them, and the idiots who think TFL
run a free service and you are there daily taxi and not a bus service,
then the kids who seem to think that just because they have a reciept
from the post office to say they have applied 6 months ago for an
oyster card this gives them the right to yet again abuse the poor
driver as they think they can travel for free with a reciept because
the idiot at the post office said they could when infact they cant.

We deserve danger money let alone 30k a year for providing a service
that should we all decide to go on strike the underground would not be
able to cope and London would be brought to a stand still, if thats
what it takes then that is what we are willing to do to be appreciated
for the job that we do.

In message
,
Mizter T writes

T&GWU), who "want a standard £30,000 rate of pay for drivers across
the bus network" (so says the BBC webpage linked to below).

30K? Oh is that all. Perhaps they'd like share options while they're
at it?

Bus driving is for retarded cretins, why should they get 30K for doing
a job a trained chimp could do?


Are you a retarded cretin or a trained chimp?

He/she is a troll. I'd have thought you would have realised that by now.
--
Steve Fitzgerald has now left the building.
You will find him in London's Docklands, E16, UK
(please use the reply to address for email)

On 12 Sep, 19:25, wrote:

On Sep 12, 6:21*pm, Mizter T wrote:

On 12 Sep, 10:01, Boltar wrote:

On Sep 11, 11:53 pm, Mizter T wrote:

T&GWU), who "want a standard £30,000 rate of pay for drivers across
the bus network" (so says the BBC webpage linked to below).

30K? Oh is that all. Perhaps they'd like share options while they're
at it?

Bus driving is for retarded cretins, why should they get 30K for doing
a job a trained chimp could do?

Are you a retarded cretin or a trained chimp?

You obviously are a retard and have the brain cells of a chimp to post
a comment like that for all to see!

As a bus driver it takes approxamatley 8 - 12 weeks on meger pay to
actually gain the license and the we have to put up with arseholes
like yourselves on a daily basis, this does not include the black cab
drivers the mini cab drivers and the so called other road users who
seem to enjoy playing russian roulette with a 12 tons bus and then
wonder why the driver gets irrate and when we do have an accident its
always the bus drivers fault that the idiot in the car pulled out in
front of them or cut them up or jump the lights or cut in front of
them.

We run the daily guanlet of abuse from idiot passengers who think you
are tourist information and then get abusive when you cannot help them
plan a route around the country for them, and the idiots who think TFL
run a free service and you are there daily taxi and not a bus service,
then the kids who seem to think that just because they have a reciept
from the post office to say they have applied 6 months ago for an
oyster card this gives them the right to yet again abuse the poor
driver as they think they can travel for free with a reciept because
the idiot at the post office said they could when infact they cant.

We deserve danger money let alone 30k a year for providing a service
that should we all decide to go on strike the underground would not be
able to cope and London would be brought to a stand still, if thats
what it takes then that is what we are willing to do to be appreciated
for the job that we do.


I do hope that you actually intended to direct your venom against
Boltar rather than against me - my comment that you replied to was a
mere one line riposte to Boltar's comments. You will see from my
earlier comments that I do have some sympathy with the bus drivers for
the trials and tribulations that they must endure.

I notice that one of the East London Line replacement services was wiped out
by the strike. Is this the first time a railway replacement has been hit by
a strike?

On 13 Sep, 04:13, "John Rowland"
wrote:
I notice that one of the East London Line replacement services was wiped out
by the strike. Is this the first time a railway replacement has been hit by
a strike?

That would be the ELW service operated (or not) by First that serves
Wapping, Shadwell, and Whitechapel (and also Shoreditch during certain
times but only with a half-hourly frequency now I think). No idea
whether this is a first or not... (no pun intended!).