Strike goes ahead as London bus drivers seek Olympic payment

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Strike goes ahead as London bus drivers seek Olympic payment

22 June 2012

Thousands of London bus drivers are taking strike action today (Friday 22 June) over the failure by London bus operators to award them an Olympic payment.

Members of ITF-affiliated union Unite are taking London-wide industrial action for the first time in 30 years, at more than 70 bus garages across the city. The walk out has gone ahead despite the unprecedented granting of a high court injunction yesterday which suspended strikes in three of the capital?s 21 bus companies.
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Unite has branded the injunction ?an affront to democracy? and says disruption caused on the transport network today will be down to the refusal by Transport for London (TfL) and bus operators to negotiate a meaningful settlement over the award of an Olympic bonus. Unite has been calling for the opportunity to negotiate for several months but was only able to engage TfL in talks yesterday which proved unsuccessful. Drivers are seeking an extra ?17.24 a day to compensate them for the increased pressure they face during the games, with an estimated 800,000 more people set to be using London buses. This would bring them in line with almost all other transport workers in London who have already agreed varying bonus payments to cover the games period.
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Chair of the ITF road transport section and Unite executive council member, Martin Mayer said: ?The struggle of London bus drivers is a totally just one - to achieve the payment of a modest bonus which would go some way towards compensating workers for the tremendous extra work expected of them because of loadings, traffic etc during the Olympics. But above all workers deserve at least this small share of the massive additional revenues expected during this period ? why should TfL and the London Bus Operators expect to take the lot?? (Read a statement from the Chair here >>)
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ITF road transport section secretary Mac Urata added: ?This dispute extends far beyond London. Several of the bus operators involved have multinational parent companies such as RATP, Comfort Delgro and Deutsche Bahn. We also hope that the successful negotiation of a settlement for London bus drivers would set a precedent for the payment of bonuses to transport workers during sporting events globally.?
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ACT NOW! Show your support for the bus drivers of London by sending a letter of protest to the 21 bus operators refusing to give the workers a fair deal.
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