Bus passengers told to expect another strike
A further 24-hour bus strike is on the cards for Thursday sparking disruption for thousands of passengers across Devon and Cornwall.
The RMT transport union is locked in a dispute with First Devon and Cornwall over pay and contracts for new employees.
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Tensions have been rumbling on over the past few months.
Last month a 24-hour walk-out by bus drivers and engineers went ahead, while a second strike was averted at the eleventh hour.
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Yesterday bus chiefs said they had been informed by the union a strike was in the pipeline for Thursday.
The end of the row had looked in sight on Friday November 2 when the company offered staff a 2% pay increase from December 2 and a further 2.3% increase from April next year.
However, union chiefs have rejected the offer after consulting their members.
The conciliatory service ACAS is now likely to be drafted in, in an attempt to settle the matter.
Chris Bainbridge, Service Delivery director for the company said: "We are incredibly disappointed and frustrated."
Comments
by robocop1982
Friday, November 16 2012, 11:24PM
“This is nothing to worry about compared to the problems that lie ahead for our society. It likely won't happen in our generation but the future generations are going to have alot of economic problems and the uk is likely to experience a mass famine at some point. some people think the uk is impervious to humanitarian disasters. THey are greatly mistaken. if a country the size of china experienced a great famine then so too could england. THe government that are running the show right now will not be around for ever. things will change. there's no way of telling how long this system will even be able to remain stable we currenly live by. Nobody knows for certain the outcome of this road we are going down. YOU would be a fool to think we can guarantee long term stability.”
by Debris
Friday, November 16 2012, 8:23AM
“Actually Accom - this article has been published on multiple sites and they all show the same comments.
I am reading this on "This Is South Devon"”
by accom
Friday, November 16 2012, 7:10AM
“Muggins - try looking at the website - this is "This is North Devon"!!”
by Muggins
Thursday, November 15 2012, 2:11PM
“Um Hello, Why has my comment re. bus drivers not been shown This is Cornwall?”
by accom
Thursday, November 15 2012, 7:37AM
“Billinbarum: excellent comment, couldn't agree more, and echoes with several other comments too. If you don't want to work, let other people do the job - people who have been on the dole for years and are desperate for any kind of work at all. In the current climate, it's incredibly selfish and ungrateful to complain about pay etc. when many people don't have a job at all. They should hire Eastern Europeans as they work so hard for little money and never complain, and all the Polish/Lithuanian drivers I come across are really friendly and proud to live here.”
by billinbarum25
Wednesday, November 14 2012, 6:26PM
“whats the nutter on about???,,,,,Anyway bus drivers are paid far more than the are worth and a hell of a lot more than they deserve, if £17,000 pa is not enough (far more then most earn locally who work much harder) then sack them all and employ people who want to work and are prepared to do a better job of it with a lot better service”
by hunterdave
Wednesday, November 14 2012, 4:46PM
“Who cares? Let them strike. Just use your cars to pollute the air and block the roads. Then the bus drivers wont be needed and be on the scrap heap that they deserve :)”
by accom
Wednesday, November 14 2012, 3:33PM
“Hail to the bus driver,
Bus driver!
Bus driver!
Hail to the bus driver,
Bus driver man.
He yells and he cusses,
and smells up the buses,
Hail to the bus driver,
Bus driver man.
He steps on the clutch
and the toilet goes flush.
Hail to the bus driver,
Bus driver man.”
by Elliot_TBR
Wednesday, November 14 2012, 2:39PM
“@exebomb: I catch the bus several times a day, and the drivers on routes I catch are quite pleasant 90% of the time.”
by exebomb
Wednesday, November 14 2012, 10:44AM
“I am quite happy to say that bus drivers don't deserve any more then they get - the whole service needs a re-think these rude, belligerent, passive aggressive men and women all need a good hard lesson in customer service and they need to be brought into the 21st century, if they sorted out the business model and the drivers they could market the service to environment conscious drivers like me to use the service however I would rather drive then deal with a bus driver in the morning. I and I'm sure others would rather have no buses for a week while they sack the lot of them and re-hire and maybe they can get more business and reduce the extortionate ticket prices and secure more business by marketing a real alternative to driving to work and environment focused drivers will take this option up but not until they sort out the drivers morals and work ethics”