The Stagecoach Devon bus strike continues. The RMT bus drivers are demanding £6-50 and hour without attacks on their conditions. Stagecoach are trying to introduce conditions which will mean that all breaks will be unpaid. It is a legal requirement that drivers have a 45 minute break, there also "breaks" at the end of many routes and Stagecoach even consider walking back from the High Street to the bus depot in Paris Street as being a break that will be unpaid. Thus Stagecoach claim that they are offering £6-75 an hour when in reality if all the unpaid breaks are taken into consideration the pay offer is much less than £6-50. The European decency threshold of pay is £7-12 per hour.

Rather than negotiate a settlement Stagecoach Devon manager, Hilditch, is using intimidation tactics against the strike. Just over a week ago he was threatening massive job cuts and cuts in "unprofitable" services. Last Friday (25th July) he placed a full page advert in the local papers trying to recruit new drivers i.e. scabs to try to break the strike.

Despite the intimidation the strike remains entirely solid with only 2 out of 300 drivers in Exeter crossing picket lines. The strike is similarly solid in Torquay and in Exmouth.

Poverty pay and conditions is a scourge in the Westcountry. A victory for the Stagecoach Devon bus drivers will be a victory to us all. So do what you can to support the strike. Write to the Devon papers in support of the strike, write to Stagecoach to tell them to pay up, write to the RMT to give them your support! For more information see the coverage of the dispute on LabourNet UK.

 http://www.labournet.net/default.asp#rmtdevon

cheers

Dave Parks