London Unite member
Unite members at Arriva London North have suspended an all-out indefinite strike that was due to start on 4 October. This expression of serious intent had an impact – at the time of writing, the employers had made a new pay offer which workers will be balloted on.
They had rejected a previous offer by a huge margin, with every garage voting to reject. The strike would have involved 2,000 members across eight depots.
The workers took no notice of ridiculous claims that the money does not exist. Arriva is ultimately owned by Deutsche Bahn which has transferred some £560 million to shareholders. The truth is that there is plenty of money – the problem is that the wrong people have too much of it!
There is a growing number of strikes involving Unite bus workers, and increasingly members are drawing the conclusion that the action that is taken must be action that can win the dispute.
Improved offer accepted by south of England bus strikers
Unite the union reports that strikes against Arriva bus services in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire have been called off after around 900 workers accepted a ‘vastly improved’ pay offer.
The workers have accepted a deal which will see drivers’ pay lifted by 11.1% in Hertfordshire and by 10.4% in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Previously Arriva had been offering pay rises of between four and six per cent.
