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Hundreds of bus routes hit as First Group drivers set to strike, confirms Unite 

23rd October 2009

First Group bus services across England will grind to a halt this Monday (October 26th) when thousands of drivers take industrial action against an imposed pay freeze.

Unite members working for First Group in Essex, Yorkshire and the north west will be taking simultaneous industrial action on Monday to defend their wages and reject a zero percent pay freeze imposed by the First board in all of its 19 UK bus subsidiaries.  The simultaneous action is set to hit hundreds routes in the affected regions. 

With First Group PLC making a pre-tax profit of over £200 million in 2009, the bus workers are incensed that national management refuses to allow local managers to fund a fair pay deal and keep services operating.

Unite says that First is using the recession to make its employees pay for profits and bigger dividends for its shareholders, and warns that without a return to the negotiating table to propose a fairer pay deal, the company is set to be embroiled in a series of rolling strikes across the country.

Unite national officer for transport, Graham Stevenson, said: “Our members up and down the country are simply furious at First's imposed zero percent pay freeze. They will not accept it which means serious disruption to services unless First rethinks its position.

"This workforce has delivered all this company has asked of them and more.  It is only right and fair then that they can take home a wage which helps them support their families.  Once again, we appeal to First - meet us nationally, reconsider this aggressive and hostile stance, and work with us to find a fair deal for drivers and maintain the services customers depend on."

Drivers have already held 24-hour stoppages regionally in the last few weeks. Unite's attempts to resolve the pay deal by engaging the help of the conciliation service ACAS in an attempt to break the deadlock came to nothing as First Group continues to refuse to budge on fair pay.

Mr Stevenson added: “Busworkers' pay has dropped massively since deregulation and privatisation. Remorselessly, for over a decade, this decline continued. This imposition of a national pay freeze at a time of record profits for this company may well be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

“No doubt the achievement of a zero percent pay policy on busworkers’ pay will add up to a tidy sum in management bonuses. We thought the era of fat-cats and boardroom bonuses was supposed to be over, clearly not."

Unite is calling for the implementation of a just wages system to raise busworkers’ earnings, and the re-establishment of status grades to recognise responsibility and skills and reflect the growing demands of the job.

ENDS

For more information contact Graham Stevenson on 07976 842359 or Graham.Stevenson@uniontheunion.com