London bus drivers demonstration 24/7/08

London bus drivers march to city hall demanding pay parity among the private companies who run London's buses.

From T&G/UNITE press release:

London’s bus workers and members of Unite the union will today (Thursday 24th July) march on City Hall to demand one rate of pay across all bus companies that operate within the capital.

In a recent ballot of Unite’s 28,000 Busworkers 99 percent voted yes to the proposed single rate of pay across the network.

Unite is calling for a single rate of pay for drivers of £30,000 a year, based on a 38 hour week. Currently the eighteen London bus companies all operate with different pay structures, with pay inequalities of up to £6,000 a year.

There is a startling disparity between bus drivers pay in the capital, with rosters in some companies seeing many drivers’ complete nearly 60 hours per week.

Driving on London’s roads is a potentially hazardous job, and as a result Unite is calling for standard rosters, scheduling and pay rates that will remove this culture of excessive working hours on London’s bus routes.

Peter Kavanagh, Unite Senior Regional Industrial Organiser says: "If the tendering system, TfL and the employers insist on continuing with their ‘Race to the Bottom’, our members will be taking part in a race of their own - a Race to the Picket Lines!"

Employers are also threatening to introduce lower rates of pay for new employees and even to set up new ‘low cost’ operations as sub-divisions, with inferior terms and conditions, in their frenzy to win or retain contracts for certain routes.

Steve Hart, London Regional Secretary for Unite says: "Boris Johnson recently described London’s bus drivers as the ‘World’s finest’. If he really believes this then he needs to act quickly to end the huge disparities in pay across London’s bus networks. Unite has written to the Mayor inviting him to comment on our campaign for Equal Pay for his drivers."

Paddy Garcia
e-mail: paddygarcia@hotmail.co.uk

Comments

Hide the following 22 comments

excellent pictures

24.07.2008 22:59

those are absolutely excwllwnt pictures. Well done.

PS assuming that isn't actually a decimal point as the placard has it, and they really are demanding £40,000 a year um... WTF?! I can't be the only person who dreams of being on £40000 a year and also works in the public sector. Of course they deserve that, we all *deserve* that, it just seems like a mad demand. You might as well have a placard with "communism now" on it, its in the same league in terms of PR and sensibility.

cosmo the twat

Reallistic

25.07.2008 08:42

Hi Cosmo,

Considering that the Cost of living has risen so much, and that this is London where the cost of living, and wages are higher than other parts of the country. I don't think 40 grand is as ridiculous as you think.

Fly Posters

Double pay if......

25.07.2008 08:59

I would support doubling the pay of London bus drivers if they'd only be friendly and helpful. I would say 10% are but most are miserable unhelpful buggers x

Rodders

This in not the revolution

25.07.2008 10:39

It appears that the cost of living has rised also for the low-waged, the unemployed, the single mothers, the unskilled workers who are paid a pittance, the migrants who are forced into 'illlegality' and into slavery-like working conditions. The fight needs to be by all and for all. I won't mind 40.000 a year myself...as it goes I'm being paid a quarter of that, I don't get London weighting and I have not much to go by. Pity I can't drive! Than I am privileged I don't really go hungry, most of our fellow humam beings do.

Ros

£40k for driving a bus!?

25.07.2008 12:14

Unless they're being asked to drive it through Baghdad, they are taking the piss.

I hold two degrees and work just as many hours as them in a job that requires me to drive 30 miles each morning on little country roads before I can even start my day. I get half of what they are asking for.

I've got no problem with them demanding equal pay - I just didn't realise they meant equal to a junior doctor doing a 60-70 hour week!

MonkeyBot 5000

£40 K

25.07.2008 12:30

£40K a year to drive a bus ???????

you are fuckin joking right ?

still laughing

Odd responses

25.07.2008 13:22

People responses to this seem odd in the extreme - a definite throwback to the thatcherist era of supreme individualism.

The fact that bus drivers earn what they do is due in no small part to the fact they take collective action against poor wages.

Instead of bemoaning others pay packets think what you could do if you joined together with your fellow workers to demand better pay?

Ps have any of you driven a bus in london? It has to be one of the most unappealing job prospects you could encounter.

More pay for bus drivers more pay for all workers!

dave avering

40k fair pay

25.07.2008 14:19

I hold a PCV licence and used to drive a bus in London,18 years ago. I left because of the privitasation and violence towards drivers. Most drivers work an average of 50+ hours a week due to archaic shift rota patterns. Beleive me,driving a bus,dealing with passengers,trying to make timetables is a stressful job. For instance when I was driving,what is known as a spreadover would start at 05.00 until 10.00am then have a few UNPAID hours off the start at 15.00-19.00. This is 12 hours of MY time in which I had to limit what I could do with my time of which I got paid 7 hours. Don`t forget that bus/coach have to pass a rigoruos driving test and medicals whilst having the respnsibility of 70 lives.
For health and safety for all concerned cut the hours.
POWER to the drivers.

PCV holder

right dave,strikers would agree with u,living wage4all,stop moaning.How can BNPc

25.07.2008 15:05

claim to be representatives of working people, you never see them on demos like these, in fact they are kind to be hired by really bad corporations to murder+rape human rights activists& their kids,scum!

Green syndicalist

@ Dave

25.07.2008 15:11

"People responses to this seem odd in the extreme - a definite throwback to the thatcherist era of supreme individualism."

No, just a step into reality. Driving a bus is not a £40k a year job.

"Instead of bemoaning others pay packets think what you could do if you joined together with your fellow workers to demand better pay?"

Great idea, let's all demand £40k a year. Unfortunately, since the bus drivers, mechanics, cleaners etc all need to be paid more, your bus fair is going to go up. All of a sudden your £40k only buys you as much as £20k would have before the mass pay rise. You can't just crank up the pay without changing anything else. A better option is to take back the buses so that their isn't the requirement to generate profit and have big bonuses for directors. What would be taken in profit can then be used to increase wages.

Do you really think someone who can't understand that should be earning as much as a junior doctor who is far more skilled, far less replaceable and who works 50% more hours a week?

As for unapealing jobs - I'd rather drive a bus in London than be wiping old people's arses in a care home for minimum wage. Some drivers have a legitimate gripe in that they are being paid less than others, but they still have a comparitively easy job when you look at jobs of similar and even higher skill..

Okay a bit of perspective

25.07.2008 16:12

Arriva (who cover most of the london bus routes) last year reported turnover of £909.2 million and profit before tax of £47.3 million. In 2007 Arriva had total assets of £1,778.0 million and net assets of £623.0 million.

Arriva also recently won the Cross Country rail franchise getting a government subsidy worth £1.05bn over the life of the franchise.

Unfortunately i couldn't find how much David Martin, head of Arriva is getting paid for all this.

The point is though across london bus companies want to pay drivers the lowest wage they can get away with (to increase their profits and to retain their franchise), the drivers naturally enough want everyone to be paid the same, decent, wage.

As the song goes which side are you on, boys, which side are you on....

dave

usual indymedia "BLACK OR WHITE!!!!!111" bollocks

25.07.2008 17:41

just like if you question state sponsored 'anti racism' you "ARE THE BNP", if you question whether £40,000 a year for driving a bus is a very useful demand you "ARE A THATCHERITE INDIVIDUALIST".

Kids, for fucks sake, we wouldn't be reading this site if we were right wingers! I'm a communist, for my sins. All i'm saying is that £40k is a mad MAD demand, and as others have pointed out, completely out of perspective to other key workers and out of perspective to what the value system of our society is - however much we want to change the latter. It smacks of Trottery actually - their 'transitional demand' nonsense where you demand something really mad knowing it will lose, hopefully pushing workers to revolt.

Bus drivers do have a hard job, no argument there 'PCV holder'. But don't we all? Currently working as a labourer whilst waiting to become a Teaching Assistant i work 11 hour days with an hours break for £6.30 an hour. And that's GOOD for labouring right now. It's also far more dangerous than pretty much everything other that making porn films with live sharks. If i wanted to take industrial action i would make rational demands to level my pay with people who did similar jobs - like chippy's and brickies - and demand something like £10 - £15 an hour.

Like i said, demands for 40k are just mental, they can only puzzle other workers and make you look like a loony. We should be fighting for equality and fair treatment for workers, not some bullshit shampoo advert 'cos i'm worth it' silliness.

PS and bus drivers in london are utter cunts, sorry, but try living oop north where they are polite and you'll realise how true this is. And no, northern ones are paid even worse.

PPS to the guy who was like 'stop whinging and join a union' - no shit mate, T&G and IWW = me. Of course unionised industries have better pay at low levels. How did that rebuff the points made here?

cosmo, your one weird fucked up communist

25.07.2008 18:38

i tell you what mate if you are in the iww bill hayward must be turning in his fucking grave.

Sour Apple Tree

£40,000 placard

25.07.2008 18:58

Just so we're clear the £40,000 is on the RMT placard. The RMT have been campaigning for years to have bus drivers pay in line with tube drivers. It's a clear strategy that says all pulic transport workers are, and should be treated, the same.

Any bus drivers who earns anywhere near 40k a year can you get in touch so we can put poor cosmo out of his/her misery.

The average basic wage for a 40 hr week on East Thames buses (the only buses not run by private operators) is £23,878 going up to £26,062 after the first year.

Cosmokilla

karm down! karm down!

25.07.2008 22:29

got a feeling i know the cosmo dude (london wob recently decamped from sheffield, no longer an anarchist ;)?

It that's the case you are saying some pretty weird stuff mate.

Bus drivers work for private companies, therefore their pay is in keeping with market forces ie however much the company think they can get people to work for, and has nothing to do with your job, your condition, or your value as a worker. Basic Marx, innit.

The point about this demonstration (don't think it was a strike per se) was that bus drivers should get the same level of pay across the board, raised up to the highest standard, rather than levelled down to the lowest standard as the bus companies want.

I think the thatcherite individualism slur is based on those of us who remember the 80's where thatcher divided the working class by successfully pitting sets of workers against each other by making us all 'individuals' fighting for a better life/pay packet/job, rather than fighting collectively with each other against the bosses for a better life.

Seriously cosmo, check your iww histroy.

ASAP

WTF

26.07.2008 09:37

Not sure I was awake when I read this article.....

£40K for being a surly git behind a screen, who do they think they are....bank employees?

Most bus drivers (in London, can't speak for the rest) are rude,dismissive,arrogant and not to put too finer point on it, crap drivers (could someone else look up the accident figures involving buses please.)

They arn't nurses, doctors, emergency services, scientists, teachers etc so what have they done to be WORTH that sort of cash.

Fact fans......"it is a hazardous job with responsibility", the reality is that if it gets nasty (or someone wont get off the bus cos they are asleep etc) they have a big red button and the cops have to come running. If they want someone off they just stop the bus and open the doors, to hell with everyone else.

To hell with them, Manchester has driver less trams, and so far there has yet to be rivers of blood, and Londons streets were rebuilt for trams a long time ago (look it up, we used to have a fantastic public transport system, it will be in black and white as it was ages ago haha), and where you cant get a tram, how about a 2 crew routemaster.

OK bring on the hatred

Harry Purvis

Idiots

26.07.2008 10:44

Rather than questioning the right a (small) group of individuals hold over controlling public transport and subsequently how much we have to dish out for travelling in our own streets, you choose to attack those that would try to make these rich greedy arrogant bastards a tiny bit poorer (less wealthy). This is why any sort of revolutionary change is ages away (especially in the UK) with the likes of comments im reading on indymedia of all places. We should all be fighting for an equal share of wealth and for a complete change to this system which is based on profit, exploitation of the working class, obscene enviromental damage, and murder. But yeah what the hell let's blame the bus drivers.

IDIOTS

A21

For Harry

26.07.2008 10:58

experienced manchester tram drivers earn the same as london bus drivers (around £23,000)

Ooops

26.07.2008 21:22

Ooops my mistake, last time I was in Manchester i didnt see a driver, my mistake. OK OK then the DLR then I know they don't.

As for my other detractor, it's not about sharing the wealth at all.....it comes from taxation, and therefor US. So no drivers, or only a few paid a sensible wage lowers the amount we have to pay in tax.

Public sector pay IS too high but in the wrong areas,piss poor managers and apochetniks, not in the pockets of those who need it, if a manager is so good that he demands a salery of XYZ and if he dosn't get it he will leave then he knows where the door is (he will have a shock, privae industry is a damb sight nastier). After that we can start to demand to "see the books" over tax and spending. I think a few more people should find out how much we spend on running the country, shocks ahoy.

If the money is going in and we aint getting nowt out, THEN we will have the proof that will cause change, when people think they are getting short changed then they get nasty.

An individual is a voice and easly drowned out, millions of voices changes governments.

sheeple like being slaves

26.07.2008 21:51

these sheeple are happy being slaves, they just want a few more crumbs on their plates, that's all. so give it to them

oi yoi

just questioning the placard, not the issue

27.07.2008 11:19

just like to point out that my only point was how honest the '£40k minimum' RMT placard was (it makes a ,little more sense in the contect of equallong pay with train drivers, slightly). People don't need to explain basic class politics to me, i'm not challenging any unions fight for better pay or suggesting there is a meriticracy (or should be) when it comes to pay.

Obviously fuck the bosses of the rail etc etc

Not asking for 40k but 30k!!!

19.08.2008 01:45

We Bus Drivers are not asking for 40k we want and deserve 30k!!!

For those of you who think us Bus Drivers are a bunch uneducated morons you couldn't be more wrong. I my self have a degree in politics from a UK university and left my last office job to become a Bus Driver because it was even worse pay than what I'm earning now.Many of my colleagues are educated people, albeit from different parts of the world.

It is a demanding job. Try driving up and down Oxford street 4 times a day five days a week.!

sal72