Sheffield TUC urges support for UNITE bus drivers on STRIKE at Stagecoach
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“It’s time to take back control of our bus services” says Sheffield TUC
“We are proud to support UNITE bus drivers staging an all-out strike across South Yorkshire, as more than 560 workers, based at Stagecoach depots in Sheffield, Barnsley and Rotherham, say NO to low pay and derisory pay offers” says Martin Mayer Secretary of Sheffield TUC.
UNITE General Secretary Sharon Graham said: “Low pay is the scourge of the bus industry right across this country. Stagecoach made profits touching £60m last year and has £875m in the bank. Yet it cannot make a decent offer to its staff. Unite is pledged to fight for the jobs pay and conditions of our members so we will be relentless in the campaign to ensure that our members at Stagecoach, in South Yorkshire, get a fair deal.”
UNITE Regional Officer Phil Bown said: “Bus workers were rightly hailed as heroes during successive lockdowns. However, warm words do not pay the bills and Stagecoach needs to reward its workers’ dedication with a decent pay award.”
The strikes were called after members rejected the latest offer by management following extensive negotiations with UNITE. Stagecoach offered its South Yorkshire workers just 2 per cent, compared to pay deals secured by UNITE in other areas of the country of 6.5 per cent, 7.5 per cent and even 10.5 per cent.
“We know the public in Sheffield – including bus passengers- will not be blaming the drivers for this strike, but will give them their support in their just fight for proper pay and conditions,” said Martin Mayer. “We all know what a difficult job bus drivers have and how they worked to keep services running during lockdown, like other key workers. We are clear: we blame privateer Stagecoach, a profitable multinational company, which has driven down their pay and conditions over the years and run down our bus services in its drive for profits. We are fed up with our rotten privatised and deregulated bus services in this city. We need to take back public control and ownership of our buses and create a world class service operated by drivers enjoying good pay and conditions and job security.”
Strike action will take place in Barnsley and Rotherham everyday between Saturday 27 November and Saturday 4 December.
In Sheffield, strike action will take everyday between Sunday 28 November and Sunday 5 December.
Messages of support can be sent to Unite Regional Officer Phil Bown phil.bown@unitetheunion.org
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Martin Mayer can be contacted on 0776 107 8482
It’s clear that the only way to get a pay rise is to join a union- and be prepared to take strike action. For too many workers, low pay and job insecurity is all that is on offer in spite of all the warm claims in the media and from the Government that wages are rising.
Recently we’ve seen successful campaigns from workers in trade unions in Sheffield:
- UNITE cleaners at University of Sheffield won their claim for £10 per hour
- GMB bin collectors won an increased pay offer from Veolia within days of calling all out-strike action
- UCU college lecturers at Hallam University won an 18% pay rise for casualised academic staff following a ballot for strike action
Just Eat courier drivers in Sheffield are set for strike action from 6th December in response to a pay cut announced by Stuart Delivery, but are demanding a pay rise not a pay cut and regularised employment contracts. They’ve joined IWGB the independent trade union that specialises in fighting for hard-to-organise gig-economy workers on bogus self-employment