{"id":15740,"date":"2018-07-19T11:35:46","date_gmt":"2018-07-19T10:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15740"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:36","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:36","slug":"sheffield-tram-drivers-dispute-tramlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15740","title":{"rendered":"‘Propaganda war’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bus bosses have been accused of waging \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a propaganda war\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the run-up to this weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tramlines music festival in Sheffield in the dispute over a \u00e2\u20ac\u009826 pence an hour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay offer for workers on the city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supertram network.<\/p>\n

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About 200 drivers and conductors working on the 48-stop light rail tram system will stage a 72-hour strike from\u00c2\u00a01am tomorrow (July 20) which coincides with the three-day Tramlines event featuring headline act\u00c2\u00a0 Noel Gallagher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s High Flying Birds.<\/p>\n

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Unite said that South Yorkshire Supertram Ltd was using the festival to imply that the union was ruining the travel plans of thousands of music lovers.<\/p>\n

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But the union has hit back saying the bus bosses were conducting \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a propaganda war\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 against its members.<\/p>\n

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Unite said that it had tried to convene a meeting with management this week – following two days of recent strike action – in a bid to hold constructive talks, but to no avail.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe management is waging a nasty propaganda war against Unite members taking legitimate industrial action over a shoddy pay offer that amounts to a 26 pence an hour rise,” said Unite regional coordinating officer Steve Clark.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe bosses at South Yorkshire Supertram have had plenty of time to come to the table to negotiate a fair settlement since the two days of strike action on 9 and 12 July, but have chosen not to.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have spent the last two days travelling the extra mile to convene a meeting with the company, but this has been met with a brick wall of managerial intransigence,” he added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe company could have sorted this well before the annual Tramlines festival. Instead, we understand it is marshalling buses from outside Sheffield with drivers who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the routes in a bid to break this strike.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe company usually makes a lot of extra money when Tramlines is held because of increased journeys to the Hillsborough Park venue. But on this occasion, it has put aside money making opportunities for a bit of old fashioned union bashing.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf our members accepted the firm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s derisory offer they would eventually, in the years ahead, be working for the national minimum wage.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe will fight against this race to the bottom and continue to campaign for a proper wage rise for the hardworking drivers and conductors who are out in all weathers keeping the people of Sheffield on the move.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI am sure that those attending the Tramlines festival will understand that this is a fight against a miserly pay offer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and may even offer gestures of solidarity to our members.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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The workers have overwhelmingly rejected the latest revised three-year pay offer from May 2018.\u00c2\u00a0 Unite said that when the details were analysed it amounted to an increase of just 26p an hour and the union accused the management of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098playing a game of smoke and mirrors\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite members voted by 91 per cent for strike action and by 95 per cent for industrial action short of a strike.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bus bosses have been accused of waging \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a propaganda war\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in the run-up to this weekend\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Tramlines music festival in Sheffield in the dispute over a \u00e2\u20ac\u009826 pence an hour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay offer for workers on the city\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s supertram network.   About 200 drivers and conductors working on the 48-stop light rail tram system will stage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15741,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[523,942],"wps_subtitle":"Sheffield tram drivers under attack as Tramlines festival looms","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15740"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15740"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26041,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15740\/revisions\/26041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}