Alec Thraves, Swansea Trades Council and Socialist Party
Unite bus workers have begun a series of planned strikes after overwhelmingly rejecting the company’s measly pay offer, its refusal to honour back pay, and to improve poor working conditions.
First Cymru is part of the highly profitable First Group transport network which made over £200 million profit last year.
First Cymru is notorious for paying some of the lowest wages in the transport industry. It has also enforced a two-tier wages system, where new recruits are paid an even lower rate for their first twelve months of employment.
A wage of just £13.45 an hour, just above the national minimum wage, is a disgrace for skilled workers who have to navigate outdated vehicles and protect the safety of thousands of passengers.
One of the young strikers remarked that he regularly transported jam-packed, double-decker buses of students from their Swansea halls to campus, but gets paid less than his shopworker partner.
Across South West Wales, from Bridgend to Haverfordwest, Unite members have responded magnificently to the call for action. The strike was solid with big picket lines at the Swansea depot, where just six buses out of the normal 67 a day left the depot and scabbed.
And little wonder, when they look across the Bristol Channel and see First Bus workers in Bristol earning up to £3 an hour more, and driving a modern, up-to-date fleet of vehicles!
After these four days of strike action another four days were planned from 5 November and, unless First Cymru concede to Unite’s demands, the industrial action fireworks could continue till over Christmas!
