busworker@gmail.
com
Standing together
Metroline driver
W orking class struggle is back on
the agenda in a big way. Since the
beginning of 2009, we have seen many
groups of workers fighting back against
the bosses, despite the recession. Workers
as diverse as factory workers from Ireland
to Fujitsu workers in England.
One aspect of the strikes that have
taken place is the solidarity that has been
displayed between different workers.
An unwritten understanding that we, as
workers, are in the fight together. A recent
example was bus workers and firefighters
in Sheffield marching together to demand
the same things from their employers.
In London, the postworkers have been
unrelenting in their fight against Royal
Mail, who, let’s be in no doubt, want to see
the CWU smashed. Support groups have
sprung up all over London in solidarity
with the posties.
I’m involved in my local supporters
group in north west London, I have
collected money from colleagues in my
garage and taken it down to my local
delivery office picket line.
The importance of such solidarity
action cannot be overstated. In times of
struggle, we as the working class must
come together; if we stand alone, we
Organising the rank and file
Continued from front page
of the rank and file by organising themselves
and walking out on an unofficial strike against
schedule changes. Management backed down
in a couple of hours.
Harrow is the smaller of the two Sovereign
garages, but was initially known as the more
militant one. We have set up a 28-strong union
committee where every route is represented.
We also created a post for a women’s rep.
Rank and file drivers from Harrow tried to
support workers at Edgware – helping them to
organise the union from the bottom up. I am
now the elected convenor for both garages.
There are lessons for other bus workers
who feel the union doesn’t represent their feel-
ings. Push the people at the top of the union to
act in the interests of the rank and file.
When I was becoming the garage rep, we
had the Unite official into the garage five
times. Most people had never seen his face
before. We made him see the frustration of the
drivers and he had to make a commitment to
action. We have won several victories over the
last year – including over rotas and schedules.
We won the right to a company trip to the coast
in the summer for workers and their families.
We never had that at Sovereign before. Having
a strong union makes a big difference.
The post strikes have recieved widespread public support
will be beaten back. The solidarity that
workers are able to build today will be
invaluable for the future.
Whichever government is elected next
year, massive cuts in spending and wages
are forecast, and it will be the working
class that are expected to bear the brunt of
these. Coupled with this is the rise of the
fascist BNP. Only the organised working
class standing in solidarity with one
another can challenge the policies of the
elected government and send the Nazi BNP
back to the sewers they crawled out of.
Get involved with working class
solidarity in action.
Why we should
elect officials
Pierre Talla
Unite branch secretary,
Hayes Garage, National Express (pc)
One way to take the struggle forward on
the buses would be to make sure all union
officials are elected.
Lots of our members in Unite are angry
that the union is not listening to them. At
our company, we rejected our pay offer back
in September but we are still waiting for a
reply from the company.
We want to ballot for strikes, but there is
no action from the union. This is not the first
time this has happened.
Many drivers are so fed up with the
union that they are joining the RMT instead
– even though the RMT isn’t recognised to
negotiate over pay.
If the full time union officials were
all elected, they would have to listen to
what the members are saying. They would
be accountable for what they do. At the
moment they think they can’t be removed
whatever the members think.
Lunatic
competition
Driver at a
south east It’s like a
bus company rollercoaster,
but cheaper
I work for a mid-
Sussex, mid-19th
century bunch of
employers choking
over every last 5p
they can cut from
their costs.
Part of those cuts – apart from the daily
partying they do over the £8.15ph that they
have paid for the last 25 months – are the
timetables.
Two things happen. One, buses are
driven at scatterbrain speeds leaving a trail
of accidents, passengers falling over and
“white knuckle” rides.
But the timetable is kept. Why do we
have these unreal and highly dangerous
time expectations?
Lunatic competition between different
bus producers to capture a local authority’s
heart (bus transport budget).
All our routes are subsidised by some
local government body – council or health
authority. What keeps my head on my
employed body? Timetables are productivity
deals – how to make bosses richer, drivers
and passengers poorer. Fight back?
Busworker is
your paper
If you are part of the fightback,
then Busworker is your paper. We
want it to be a place for discussion,
debates – and if necessary
disagreement.
We are all agreed on making the
campaigns across the country as
effective as possible, defending and
extending democracy in the unions,
fighting racism and the BNP and
offering solidarity to other workers
who are fighting back.
Busworker is not in opposition to
the official unions, but it does offer
another place for activists to speak
to each other. We will support every
positive move by the unions, but
also offer our own ideas on the way
forward.
We hope you enjoy this issue and
will send your reports, ideas and
photos to busworker@gmail.com
BusWorker
Battle on buses
goes national
Busworker says...
T
his year may well be
remembered as the beginning of
the great national fight back on
the buses. Disputes and strike
action are ablaze from one end of the
UK to the other. The power of bus
workers is being shown for the first
time in a generation.
Some people argue that it’s not
possible to fight during a recession.
Bus companies are trying to use the
economic crisis to force through a pay
freeze and worse.
But busworkers are showing that it’s
not only possible to fight, it’s possible
to motivate union members to come
out on strike time and again.
The bus strikes are part of a new
mood among workers that includes
the all-out strikes at Leeds bins and
Superdrug and of course national
strikes in the post.
And the recent strikes on the buses
could be only the start.
There needs to be a national
campaign for better pay and
conditions. We need higher pay
reflecting our essential contribution to
the economy and a radical reduction
in the hours of work (without loss of
pay).
We also need more control over
the running of our workplaces, an end
Organising the rank and file
Abdul Omer Unite convenor (pc)
When I started as a driver at Sovereign’s
Harrow garage in 2007 I found people were
living in fear. The union had no elections at the
Edgware garage and at Harrow no-one ever
stood against the sitting rep.
The 2007 pay offer was proposed one
morning at 11am and the voting took place
overnight. Most of the drivers never knew the
Strikers at West Ham bus garage in November. Photo by Guy Smallman
to management bullying and better
garage facilities.
It is good news that Unite has led
a national fight against First’s pay
freeze.
But in many of the recent strikes
there has been a feeling that more
could have been won.
That’s why several deals
recommended by the unions have been
rejected or sizeable groups of workers
have voted to keep fighting. We have
to make sure that the battles around
the country chalk up real victories.
Your newspaper, BUSWORKER,
will be at the heart of this battle.
ballot was happening. No-one believed the
results. That was the beginning of a movement
of resistance at Harrow garage. In 12 months
we had removed the rep and I was elected in
his place.
And our pay strike at the beginning of this
year helped to create a mood in the garage
that we can fight back. Then in September this
year, drivers at Edgware showed the power
>>Continued on back page
No.4 Dec 09 20p
The shape of
things to come
Paul Brandon Unite (pc)
and Busworker editor
While bus companies complain about the
recession, most of them are still getting
huge public subsidies. It’s not widely
known, but the buses in London are
subsidised to the tune of something close
to £1 billion.
This is a billion pounds going from
taxpayers, often the poorest, into the
pockets of some of the biggest transport
companies in the world.
We need to put the case that it would
be better value for money if the people
who finance the network also own it
and run it. Buses are a central part of
this country’s transport system providing
essential travel to millions on a daily basis.
Our long-term vision has to be a fully
integrated, community or publicly-owned
transport system.
We need to challenge the idea that the
only way buses can be run is by private
companies. We must fight for new ways
of running bus services no matter what
political party is in office.
BusWorker special Aberdeen
Over 450 workers at First Bus in

2009:
Aberdeen fought for three months
against the company’s pay freeze,
eventually settling in September for
Unite union in a one day strike and
a series of “rush hour” walkouts. A
significant number of workers thought
that more could have been won and

Battle on the a two year deal which maintained the

freeze for this year and gave 2 percent
in 2010.
voted against the deal.
At the height of the action there were
large pickets and around 100 Polish

buses goes
The dispute brought together drivers at the company joined the strike
drivers, engineers and cleaners in the in an impressive display of strength.

national Yorkshire
Around 1,000 drivers at First against the pay freeze with Unite union members at
in South Yorkshire held strikes announced for 7, 12 Stagecoach in Rotherham
several days of strikes against and 19 December. are staging a series of one day
the pay freeze from July Drivers at First’s Olive strikes over pay.
North West England onwards. First bosses attempted Grove depot in Sheffield won They rejected a deal of
The North West has been a major First bosses shipped in managers to use anti-union laws to stop major gains after striking for 1.5 percent. Workers at the
front in the fight against First’s pay from Scotland to try to undermine the the bus workers from taking four days over disciplinary and Barnsley depot are set to join
freeze. Drivers at First in Bolton, action. action. The workers settled in sickness procedures. They are the action.
Bury and Wigan struck every Drivers suspended their series October for a pay freeze plus in talks about a new framework
Monday for two months this autumn of action and overturned a union 2.5 percent next year. for dealing with disciplinary
against the pay freeze. recommendation by throwing out a 1,000 Leeds First workers action and if it is not resolved
Despite management attempts miserly deal of 0.6 percent this year, have voted to join the battle may strike again.
to limit numbers on the pickets and 2.5 percent next year, and 2 percent or
prevent the strikers using the word RPI rate of inflation in 2011.
“scab”, lively large pickets had a They are due to name more strike
massive impact. days before Christmas.
Kettering
A one day strike by Stagecoach drivers in
Kettering in October won concessions over
Chester pay. The drivers were pleased to have held their
Drivers at First in Chester struck over pay “first strike in donkeys” and got a bit more out
in August. One driver said, “We’re striking of management.
because we want some acknowledgement of Unite members say they are now preparing
the work bus drivers put in. to fight over next year’s pay deal.
“It’s a difficult job and £8.30 an hour is
quite a poor wage when you consider the
unsociable hours we do.”

London
Unite members at Sovereign
in West London struck in
January over pay. Drivers at the
Edgware garage won a stunning
victory over rosta changes
through unofficial strikes in
September.
East London Bus Group
drivers have held several
days of strikes in November
against a pay freeze. ELBG is
owned by Australia’s largest
investment bank, Macquarie.
As well as attempts to
Essex
First Essex drivers struck three times this autumn
against the pay freeze. A fourth strike was
They also brought a new suspended pending talks at ACAS.
starter rate in this year that But drivers say that if
means new workers will there is no deal reached,
never catch up with existing they may strike for a
rates. Many drivers believe week in the run up to
management are now trying to Christmas.
push out experienced drivers.
Drivers at CT Plus, First
Centre West and First Capital
East all voted for strikes over
pay. Isle of Wight
Drivers in the RMT at The strikers were joined
‘68 s o li da Southern Vectis, part of the on the picket line by several
Go-Ahead group, struck twice other groups of workers,
r it y fo
r e v er

implement a pay freeze, ELGB in September against a pay including former Vestas
bosses have attacked pensions freeze. This was part of a wave workers who had previously
and other conditions. of militancy on the Island. occupied their factory.