When London’s bus workers see red

In the run-up to the London bus strike today (January 13), transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin criticised the action because it purportedly lacked the support of a majority of its members.

 
“What kind of mandate is that?” he asked, referring to the strike ballot turnout. But as the day kicked off in the wee hours of the morning, bus drivers proved just how strong that mandate was.

 
Thousands of buses – comprising an astounding 70 per cent of the city’s service – remained parked in their garages as tens of thousands of drivers took to picket lines across the capital.

 
Strikers in Camberwell stood in solidarity, as Unite general secretary Len McCluskey addressed the thronging crowd of bus drivers, many of whom had turned up in the cold and rain before much of the city had even woken.

Message

 
“We’re sending a message to employers today,” McCluskey said. “If they believe for one minute that we’re going to allow unfairness to continue in this city, they best think again.

 
“Our solidarity is rock-solid,” he went on to say, hailing the overwhelming support for the strike.

 
“London is the greatest capital in the world, and you are the blood that flows through the veins of this city,” McCluskey told the drivers. “Without you, this city wouldn’t operate.”

 
He urged the striking workers to stand firm in their resolve.

 
“When there’s an injustice that exists, the only people who can put it right are ordinary working people,” he said.

 
Equal pay for equal work

 
As the media and cynical politicians inevitably paint the strikers as greedy and demanding, London’s bus drivers ask only for one collective agreement on pay and terms among the city’s 18 different bus operators. As the system works now, some bus drivers earn less than others for operating the exact same routes, with pay gaps of over £3 an hour.

 
Tyrone Longville, a bus driver for 13 years, says bus workers like him aren’t asking for the moon.

 
“This isn’t about us wanting to get loads of money off these companies,” he said. “We just want respect as workers—we want decent pay, decent terms and decent conditions. At the end of the day, it’s TfL that’s paying these companies so ultimately, it’s public money we’re talking about here. This isn’t just about us, it’s about standing up for the proper and just use of the public’s money.”

 
Danny Johnson, another bus driving veteran of seven years, agrees.

 
“We do the same work in London, we’re under the same pressures, but we’re all on different wages,” he said.

 
“Say you were a police officer in south London, and you were earning ÂŁ300 a week, and a police officer in north London earns ÂŁ500, but you both deal with the exact same situations and the same people. Wouldn’t you want to get paid the same? It’s the same with buses, we deal with the same passengers and drive on the same roads. That’s why we’re here today – equal pay for equal work.”

 
Unbearable pressure

 
Matthew Virgo started driving buses four months ago, and knows all too well the struggles new starters face.
“Those basic, starting rates are so low you just can’t live off of them in London,” he said. “How are you supposed to raise a family and buy a house? It’s impossible.”

 
Virgo explains that the low wages he earns are at odds with the incredibly stressful work conditions bus drivers must deal with on a daily basis.

 
“We get lots of abuse at work and then we have the added stress of carrying several hundred passengers,” he said.
Tolani Jinadu, (pictured) has been driving buses for over a decade, says senior drivers walk a tightrope to maintain higher wages based on their experience.

 
If a senior driver is dismissed, she says, they’ll be put on new starter pay when they’re hired at another company, even if they’ve had years of experience.

 
She explains it’s not unusual for senior drivers in particular to be targeted and dismissed for even the smallest infraction, in what she believes is a deliberate attempt to undercut experienced drivers’ wages.

 
“I know a driver who had been working for the same company for over ten years, and they dismissed him for a cracked mirror.
“When I started at a new company after 12 years of experience, I was put on the same pay rate as someone who’s just passed their driving exam. I lost £3 an hour. I hardly have enough money now to eat.”

 
One fare, one rate

 
It’s these absurd pay structures, inherently designed to keep wages low, that bus drivers are fighting against.

 
Unite regional secretary Peter Kavanagh argues everything else about the London bus network is regulated.

 
“The price of the vehicle, the price of the fuel, the fares, the revenue for the fares, all that is uniform,” he said. “The only variant is bus workers’ wages.”

 
“When routes go out to tender, it’s wages that they undercut in order to win the routes,” he added.

 
Kavanagh pointed to other countries in Europe, such as Germany, Sweden and Holland, where bus employer federations sit with unions to negotiate fair and uniform pay agreements.

 
Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said the strike today was part of a larger struggle against the worst excesses of privatisation.

 
“This is about fighting against 30 years of privatisation of our bus services and a race to the bottom in the world’s leading capital city,” he said.

 
“Passengers pay one fare, drivers should receive one rate of pay, that’s the reality of it,” he added. “To achieve that, we need 18 bus companies to come round the negotiating table. So far they’ve refused, but they refused to do that on the Olympic award two years ago as well.

 
“But we won that one, and we’ll win this one in exactly the same way – with working people standing together in solidarity.”