Workers' Liberty

WHO'S TO BLAME FOR THE FUCK-UP ON THE BUSES?

After a lot of walking out and speech-making, the main thing
established around the negotiating table across London has been the staggering greed of the bus operators and the current inability of the union to mount a real challenge to this.

This year negotiations have been different. It really seemed that the Transport and General Workers' Union was going to organise serious and co-ordinated action across London; you'd be forgiven for believing they were actually in it to win for workers. The union memership have needed little rallying with most drivers prepared to see through strike action if necessary.

This energy has been shamefully wasted over the last few weeks, with union orchestrated retreats across the city.

From Uxbridge to Alperton, Westbourne Park to Orpington, London busworkers at First had been determined to take management on, rejecting three offers since October. At the heart of the fight was a defence of new workers. While most companies impose a different pay grade to extort more money from drivers with less than a years' service, First really takes the biscuit.

A global transport company based in Scotland, First "want to become the number one public transport provider with a strong customer focus, by continually improving the performance and safety of our services and listening and responding to our customer needs". This from a company that, outside of the profitable routes in the city, are responsible for service cuts across the country, provoking accusations from the trade union leaders and MPs. A public campaign group, 'We Want Our Buses Back' formed in Sheffield in 2005 to protest at the cuts in service and price rises delivered by First South Yorkshire, the main bus company in the area.

And they've put one finger up at drivers' needs. All 'new' drivers have to work 3 years nine months before they can be paid the same for the same work done by longer-serving workers!

The fight collapsed in a final ballot of workers on Friday 8th December. By a margin of around 80 votes, this year's battle came to cheap close. Management have firmly conceded no ground on changing the threshold for new drivers. The union was asking for three years, as part of the 'strategy'. Instead management put up notices urging drivers not to miss the opportunity to get a pay rise before Christmas (owed since April) and bank between £800-1000, and give up the game.

There is a bad mood over this result. In garage canteens and meetings, the union reps say they argued for a no vote; there are accusations that the new drivers, like turkeys voted for Christmas. Some garages, like Greenford and Willesden Junction are having fingers pointed in their direction.

It is no surprise that drivers, who do want to win, don't want to wait and see any longer, with little reason to believe that there was any strategy at that stage to decide this dispute in their favour. Pocketing the money now clearly means a defeat for new drivers, partly through an own goal. It is also a shame for all drivers who need, as a united whole, to be able to know they can win in negotiation with company, especially when the demands are so very low to start with. The company will be laughing now, it's probably true. And a bit more confident about next year's kick about.

Workers need to organise independently within their union for an early resolution next year, with a serious fighting strategy - across garages - that they control themselves.

East London drivers kept in the dark

Drivers working over the weekend were met with notices from the union saying they should come into work on Monday because of 'conflicting information' about the strike! East London drivers were due to take strike action alongside Metroline workers, over pensions.

It is not easy to convince younger workers that they need to be worrying about pensions. But it is clear that bosses are trying to shift as much responsibility for getting the scheme out of the black onto the drivers, while reducing their own obligations. Drivers are not even entitled to join the scheme until they have worked four years.

Under Stagecoach management, negotiations were normally over by this time of year. Drivers who have been watching how things might change under the new owners, Australia-based Macquarie Bank, have little reason for optimism. Macquarie, who last year bought up Thames Water, have something of a reputation for international money laundering.

It may not be too late for East London drivers to organise to get strike action reinstated, though this is a difficult option just before Christmas for a lot of drivers. Drivers are justified in demanding real answers from their representatives for calling the strike off. As it stands, it seems like one more stitch up on the part of the T&G on the buses.

Union sell-out on metroline

Strike action was back on for Monday 11 December after stormy meetings between the union and Metroline bosses came to nothing last week. Now the union has called it off for a second time and is now recommending that drivers vote yes for 5.75% in the ballot this week, on Wednesday!!

The company's negotiation policy throughout has been to repackage various offers, giving with one hand and taking with the other, so that one group of drivers will feel badly affected while others might be tempted to settle. Pay talks have frequently been scheduled by Metroline for before Christmas. This is to make workers feel the pressure of winter fuel bills and holiday costs, in the hope that workers will be demoralised. This underhand strategy of the company — that the union has not successfully challenged — has tended to split the union each year, with workers leaving both the company and the union in the New Year because of the poor outcome of negotiations.

This year things changed. After seven long years of weakness across London buses, drivers at Metroline stood up for themselves and walked out onto the picket lines in defiance. T&G seemed ready to stand up for their members. Unity among Metroline drivers has been brilliant; drivers have refused to be divided and weakened by the company and have overwhelmingly voted to reject the crumbs that have been served up.

Everyone saw through Metroline's attempts to impose a pay cut for the majority of drivers, in the pay offer last week, by flattening overtime pay – and voted together to throw this out.

What will happen on Wednesday? If drivers vote yes, they will teach Metroline bosses a lesson - that drivers are willing to run in circles for both the company and the union until they get tired and give in. If there is a yes vote, drivers at garages like Edgware who don't work rest days will be badly betrayed for voting in solidarity last week to resist the pay-cut on drivers who do. Those drivers had 6.5% in their sights, if they had been ready to stab the other drivers in the back. Most refused to do this, and should be commended for their loyalty. The demand throughout has been for 6.5% for everyone. No strings. The union leaders who insisted till they were red in the face that they would never drop their demand for a 'liveable wage' can have little to say for themselves now.

Drivers understand that a lot is at stake here. It is not just about taking home more money next week and hoping for better next year. This year's dispute will be the foundations for the future — for all London drivers and beyond. The "wait and see" attitude will hopefully be something of the past. Metroline management have shown their true colours more and more in the last few weeks with widespread victimisations and intimidation — they even threatened an injunction on the T&G! Workers need to stand up to the penny-pinching bullying of the company and fight back.

Metroline drivers took two days of strike action on Tuesday 14th and Monday 20th November. The T&G set their wage demands at a 6.5% increase to bring the basic hourly rate to £11, which is still lower than the rates on other London routes and far less than on the tube. This, after last year's pay deal of 10.9% had been largely undercut by cutting back on bonuses.

A third day of strike action was originally set to go ahead on Monday 20th November, and would have hit Metroline hard, incurring fines from Transport for London. Drivers had overwhelmingly rejected two inadequate offers the Friday before. Yet on the Saturday night after a long day of 'emergency' talks, union representatives voted to suspend action, and take back the offer to drivers that would mean a pay cut for most of them. And the union also refused to recommend a no vote!

The anger and disbelief from drivers was widespread, and union reps either hid or had to go around making excuses for their behaviour to try and win back the confidence of members. The best explanation was that they were tired and confused, which didn't stop drivers coming up with their own answers for the sudden u-turn, which lost drivers some of the considerable momentum they had been building up.

There was no clear reason at first for the suspension of strike action this week, which suggests that the first priority for both the union and management was to call it off- excuses could be found later! Drivers themselves cannot shoulder too much of the blame if they vote to accept this inadequate offer. Drivers are obviously owed much needed money from April.

Metroline workers have led the way for other bus drivers. More and more ordinary drivers are seeing the need to co-ordinate the organisation and communication between garages and across operators. Drivers who are willing to fight can't just rely on their paid representatives who punch well below the weight of the combined force of London drivers.

During the Metroline dispute, demands have been set low,
communications have been poor, and the union has acted like the Grand Old Duke of York, marching the workers up and down the hill, while failing to get banners and placards to the picket lines, or basic leaflets to hand out to gain the public's support.

The re-launch of Busworkers' Punch, a bulletin for rank-and-file workers originally distributed in the 30s is one step in the fight back.

If drivers fight and reject the offer tomorrow, there also needs to be mass meetings in all garages to elect a strike committee to assist the negotiating team by considering all new company proposals before a new ballot is considered. The Thursday night strike meetings at the Cricklewood Railway Club must be resumed immediately to organise pickets and collections in local workplaces between meetings, to get our side of the story across effectively to the media and to plan strategy for future strikes.

Workers' Liberty has worked with left-wing members of the RMT for years to produce the rank-and-file bulletin "tubeworker" for workers on the underground, which has been a platform for workers to voice their workplace and political demands. Busworkers' Punch welcomes news and reports from all workers involved on the buses, across the London Operators.

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