Bus stop

Tomorrow (Tuesday May 24) hundreds of Unite bus driver members, working for First Manchester Ltd will stage a one day strike over a series of serious breaches of longstanding industrial agreements.

The strike will affect services across Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford and Trafford.

“It is with a heavy heart that our members have been left with no option but to strike,” said Unite regional officer Neil Clarke.

“We regret any inconvenience and disruption caused to passengers, but they cannot and will not sit by and let their hard fought for agreements be trashed.

Unite, which represents over 700 members working out of the Oldham and Queens Road depots, has accused the company of not honouring the collective bargaining agreement they entered into with workers and breaching the 2012 pay agreement.

Members voted overwhelmingly for strike action after the company pushed through changes to conditions without negotiation in breach of the agreements.

“All the issues in this dispute could easily be resolved by the senior management and at no financial cost to the business. This is not a question of ability, but of a willingness to honour commitments and agreements that the company has signed up to,” said Clarke.

Attempts to resolve the dispute collapsed when the company failed to live up to its commitments, despite talks taking place over a year ago under the auspices of Acas, the advisory, conciliation and arbitration service.

“The message to the management is plain and simple: the agreements and procedures that all have signed up to must be honoured, adhered to and viewed as binding and not discretionary.

“Unite has acted with integrity and honour throughout and management must do likewise, starting with the reversal of the existing breaches and the re-instatement of provisions that existed prior to the breaches occurring,” he added.