Next time you get on a bus, remember, the guy driving you is paid a crap wage to do a job which is hardly the safest or easiest on the planet. He probably has a partner and kids to support. One thing is for sure; he doesn't have enough money to live reasonably on.

If you want him to support your next strike, damned well make sure you support his. And make sure you are polite but sharp with scabs. Screaming at them is counter productive, but telling them off in a calm but sharp voice might.

OK, I know Sheffield is hilly (I take the tram from the station up to the other side of town to save walking when practising Samba each week), but what ever happened to your bicycle?

Los Pueblos, Unido, Jamas Sera Vencido!

Graham

In ye olde days the publicly-owned bus system was broken up to prevent such strikes bringing down a whole service. But what happened? It became a private monopoly that is now pretty much unaccountable to anyone. I support the bus drivers but shouldnt vitriol be aimed at First and not the people at the bottom?

Oh yeah, I prefer to think of myself as a passenger and user of a service that i need, not a 'customer'!

In responce to comments, Many public workers cant Strike and if they could, there would be a public out cry. Any way, bus drivers are rude, obnoxcious and in many cases unhelpful. What about all thoses elderly individuels who use buses who get injured because of bus drivers (the majority I must add) pulling away, befour they have sat down. Down right inconciderate and shows a lack of respect for the public they serve. First bus drivers need to think carefully about what they are doing. You say they have familys to support, so do we all. But by continuing to strike they are not getting paid, and so are not supporting their familys. Us silly f**** that are trying to get to work are. From what I can see, another offer has been made to First drivers again, but again they have refused it. Face facts, you can not justify wages of £8.50hr for a service which is at best unreliable and substandard. I say again their are public workers on lower wages then this, who have to put up with a lot more, what about the other bus drivers in south yorkshire who work for much less then this. Unfortunatly they cant strike, or people would die, and as professionals they would not:) If first bus drivers want to justify wage rises, then they need to give something back. Shell we start with lessons in public relations, and good time keeping. Busses half an hour, or an hour late on Sundays for example when roads are quiet, is unexcusable. The excuse, the roads are busy just dont wash. And if the excuse, "Staff shortages" crops up. Think about all those other public workers who have to continue to provide a full service, despite staffing problems.

Dont punish the public, through striking. Why not use your heads and run busess, but dont charge the public. That way, the only people suffering will be First buses, where it hurts, in their pockets.

I don't really understand what you are saying here because your article (which should perhaps be hidden as it is more rant and opinion rather than news) raises more questions than it answers.

Firstly you focus the centre of the dispute at the drivers rather than management but don't give any reasons why. Surely the management could solve the problem just as easily by paying the drivers what they're asking for.

Secondly you compare the bus drivers wages with that of your collegues without really making a case for comparison. The implication is that if "If we have to live on such an amount so should they" which seems a somewhat childish attitude to me. Maybe more relevent is how much the management of First Buses are getting paid? Are their pay rises above or below inflation. What are their hourly rates of pay?

I dont think the drivers actually realise the scale of damage they'll cause to sheffield as a whole, people who use the uses as a lifeline to get needed pension money (because the flaming PO's have shut), or people who are going to hospital on the bus.

What about the countless peoples who cant get into work all because of a seeminglu petty strike? You have the choice not to work or not, by striking you are taking away others' choice to work.

There are better ways to voice your distaste of how you are treated, such as in france or america where you work but dont bring in the money. Its quite simple really.

The trouble at the moment is the workforces who feel they are undertreated nowadays can just go "ooh, we'll strike" and cause irrepriable damage elsewhere, its just plain selfish.

And before anyone starts, I dont use the buses very often because frankly they are utter crap. Id rather walk the 2 or so miles to the tram than have to get attitude from either the driver or idiot NEDs who seem to surf the backs of buses.

Its about time the strike'es think about the larger picture before jumping in head first with these sensational claims about "indefinate strike action" because TBH its only making the worker-management divide larger and overall public hatrid towards yourgoodself, only no one dares speak up about it for fear of backlash.

Back to the buses;

If it were upto me, the buses in sheffield should be owned by sheffield, for sheffield. Like it used to.

It worked well back then, why shouldnt it now?

A few points. I was involved in a bus driver strike in 1981 here in Edmonton. On the first day of the strike, we were told by the member of city council who was involved that we would be on strike for 41 days, until the city had saved enough money by not paying our wages to give us the raise we wanted! Sure enough, 41 days later we got our raise. I lost a beautiful Chevrolet Caprice Classic convertible because I couldn't make the payments! It took me at least three years to get back to the financial position I was in before we went on strike!!
Two fact on strikes:- Striking for more money is like f*****g for virginity! Or like fighting for peace! It kind of defeats the purpose.

Running free buses is a real tactic, it was used against Bagerline (schNews 13 10th March 1995 - Sack Revenge -  http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news13.htm ) Sadly if I remember right from recent Arriva disputes it can't be their buses as it would leave the individuals and the union wide open.

Sadly for this thread I find the lack of solidarity shown by some self-proclaimed workers pretty depressing. Admittedly it would be nice if the drivers, who I really hope are skilled if they are driving me and lots of other people around, were demanding more than pay - like a proper *public service*, not something run for some folks private profit - but that's where we are at now :-( Parity with other drivers! Support your fellow workers in their demands, its the only way we can make a challenge.

Seems like both Sheffield Public Worker and Bus User are prejudiced against drivers in the first place. SPW says bus drivers are, "bus drivers are rude, obnoxcious and in many cases unhelpful". Well I use the buses pretty regularly and I've never found that. One of the nice things about bus rides in Sheffield is how friendly people are to the drivers. Most people thank the drivers as they get off. I don't think people would be so unnecessarily polite if they were all as bad as you make out.

I've no doubt there are exceptions and you've probably had the odd bad experience but to claim they're all that way is nothing more than prejudice, unfair and inaccurate.

I support the bus drivers all the way and if it inconveniences me for a few weeks so be it. It's not such a big deal.

Public Serv ice workers says "Many public workers cant Strike" - which is not true. The number of public sector workers who are not allowed to strike is miniscule, a few more are in workplaces which have signed no strike agreements, but not many.

Not sure of it was PSW or someone else who mentioned an �8.50 wage, but this is again not true. The current wage is a MAXIMUM of �7.53, with drivers starting on �5.85. What the strike is demanding is:

30p on all rates (and there are three of them for doing the same job!) backdated to April 1st
Reduce maximum duties to 8hr 30 min ( not including 60 min unpaid meal relief) and 4hrs 30 max duty spell
Reduce maximum scheduled week to 40 hrs
Allow starter rate drivers (currently on �5.85 per hour) to go up to the next grade after 3 years instead of the current 3 years and 6 months.
One year deal - no strings!

Hardly unreasonable.

As to running free buses - sounds great in theory, but the reality would be being sued by Andrews & Yorkshire Terrors - breach of competition regs i think. Thats partly why the scabbng operation has been cancelled.

Yeah I must admit, Biking from hillsborough to stocksbridge nearly every day last week there and back Is an annoyance! and takes me nearly 3hrs a day which means I have to get up 1hr and half hours earlier than i normally would - But I feel so much fitter! And I must admit if I was in the same position as the drivers I would strike - Its ok you guys complaining, but these monopolys that own the big companies need to learn that they can't bully round their weight, they make enough money as it is! and from what I can see these companies are taking over so there isn't any competition and then treating their staff like animals with poor pay and poor standards in their jobs! because they know they can - Now is this right? No! this is the only thing workers can do! Unite as one! because if we don't bad working conditions and poor pay will increase and that effects us all.

I think that all public transport should be free, one town
in Belgim did do this:

68,000 people live in the Belgium town of Hasselt;
another 200,000 people commute in and out every day.
Faced with rising debt and traffic congestion, the mayor
decided to abandon plans to build a third ring road
around the town. Instead, he closed one of the two
existing ring roads, planted trees in its place, laid
more pedestrian walkways and cycle tracks, increased the
frequency and quality of the bus service and announced
that public transport would be free of charge.

A year later the use of public transport has increased
by a staggering 800 per cent. The merchants are happy
because business has increased; there are fewer
accidents, fewer road casualties and there has been an
increase in social activity.

The same day that the town made the buses free, they
also slashed local taxes - the inhabitants of Hasselt
are now paying less than they were ten years ago. More
people are attracted to Hasselt because it is easier to
get there and the extra income has reduced the local
taxes.

One of the reasons the measure was adopted was a
shortage of funds - the city did not have enough money
to expand its roads. Free buses were a cheaper
alternative, and it worked. The city had been slowly
losing population, but since the new measures were
adopted, the population has been rising 25 times faster
than it was shrinking.

Hasselt has been showered with international awards and
prizes for the innovative way it has tackled congestion
and pollution.

 http://www.globalideasbank.org/site/bank/idea.php?ideaId=2414

In terms of whether to support the strike or not it's a
black and white issue as far as I'm concerned -- of course
the strike should be supported!

The workers get crap pay, for a hard job and the
multinational that employes them makes millions... this is
the same struggle of all workers.

I can't think of _any_ strike in Sheffield since I have
been here (since just after the miners strike) that was
not deserving of support and solidarity.

On the point of the 'no fare' ideas. I'm pretty sure it wouldnt be allowed. The train conductors wanted to do a similiar thing, as i recall, a few years back and were told that they would be in breech of their contracts and could be fired. It would have to be considered by law to be a legitimate form of industrial action.

The people who critise need to stop being so selfish for a few moments and think about the bigger picture for once or else you're just playing straight into the hands of the corporate greed.

I do support the strike, I think bus drivers are undervalued and suffer a lot of abuse while working.

However it is difficult.

I am disabled and have a long-awaited consultant appointment tomorrow. As there will be no buses I have the choice to miss the appointment (a really bad idea, given how long I have waited for it), or get a taxi there, which means I won't be able to eat till Thursday!

Come on First Mainline! What on earth am I supposed to do?????????????????????????????

I think the attitude expressed by the so-called Sheffield public worker is disgusting. The bus drivers actions should be applauded. An attack on one section of the working class is an attack on all and we'd all be better off if we had a strong trade union movement. Obviously many workers are treated badly, some even worse than bus drivers but uit shouldn't be a competition about who's treated the worst! That's what we've got though under this privatised system. Obviusly a public bus service ran not for profit but public need is what we all need and the Sheffeiled bus drivers' victory will take us a step nearer. It's about time workers stood up to this privatising big bosses' government and finally bring that murderer Balir down! ictorry to the Sheffield bus drivers! Support the picket and send in donations and messages of support.

allright i live at lowedges.. it seems much of the public are right behind the stikers.. however let's be clear there are rude and just out of order drivers.. i have seen much shit from drivers such as racism, sexism, not dealing with old people in a polite manner, being rude to passengers calling them scum when they have left the bus.. but then on shit wages and working conditions you get to understand why this might just be.. but lets not excuse some of the bus drivers who give people grief because of crapp wages etc..

there was a time when buses in sheffield were clean, drivers helpful and polite.. we can dream of the good old days.. but we need to deal with the reality.. jan wilson and new labour have run with the lack of service from first maineline.. pointed out some intresting facts.. lets hope this srike gets better conditions for drivers and passengers alike.. it aint nice having to avoid the dried puke not cleaned from the prevous night at nine in the morning..

if we are going to place and end to global warming and the loss of over 10 thousand plus animal and plant life in the next ten years.. then real start is public transport.. yes they're being a little selfish.. but here we have the opportunity to educate drivers and the wider public about the rape of mother earth.. that's why i support them.. that's why i suffer the massive inconveniance this strike has caused me..

mozaz

i read with interest the comments of first bus drivers going on strike. im not here to condone the actions of any one who0 wishes to strike.but i would like to comment on the observations that bus driving is unskilled, th author of the article obvioucley hasnt looked into what happens at the depot or the training that is required to be a bus driver not just at one individual company but at bus companies across the country. the pcv licence is looked upon as a proffesional driving qualification and if the driver who holds such a licence ends uop with too many many minor offences or too many points on there licence well below th e12 neeeded to get banned as for a car automatically gets draged into the local traffic commisioners office to see if they are still fit to hold such a licence this also goes for hgv drivers aswell.
secondly there are further qualifications that can be gained such as the nvq level 2 in road passenger transport and there are similar and higher certs also available of wich i hold several
thirdly for certain ticket machine types are virtualy computors that can isssue obviousley tickets these can cost time on the road if u dont know how to re boot them if they ever go down during a service run so we have to be computor literate aswell.
and next we have to be qualified phsycics as well with the number of passengers that get on and just ask for a single/return with no mention of where they want to go and not to mention
we also have to be super human with car drivers that think e can stop a 7 tonne bus on a sixpence without causing injury and who also think that all buses tend to bend in the middleti get round parked cars on estates
so next time you think that a bus driver is unskilled just think of the above and try not to compare differant jobs because they all have there own unique skills required