{"id":18235,"date":"2019-06-13T16:30:09","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T15:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=18235"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:56:25","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:56:25","slug":"south-yorkshire-bus-drivers-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=18235","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Insulting&#8217; pay offer"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>A total of 900 bus drivers in South Yorkshire are holding two days of strike action after rejecting the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098insulting\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 offer of a one year pay freeze, Unite said today (June 13).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The workers, employed by First South Yorkshire Limited, will strike for 24 hours on Saturday, June 29 and Monday, July 1, after voting by 69 per cent for strike action and by 79 per cent for industrial action short of a strike.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The strike will mean that services run by the company in Doncaster, Sheffield and Rotherham, as well as part of the Derbyshire Dales will \u00e2\u20ac\u0098grind to halt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, according to Unite.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members have voted overwhelmingly to strike as they are not going to put up with the insulting offer of a one year pay freeze for the year starting May 2019, especially as the parent company First Group is highly profitable,&#8221; said Unite regional officer Phil Bown.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFirst South Yorkshire is playing fast-and-loose with its financial figures \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an accountancy sleight of hand. However, the key fact is that First Group made \u00c2\u014165 million in profits from its UK bus division for the year ending 31 March 2019. This is a cash-rich organisation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bStagecoach, which operates similar services in the Sheffield area, is profitable and has offered its staff 4.7 per cent over 18 months. Why can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t First South Yorkshire make a similar offer?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf First Group is serious about preventing industrial action, which will unfortunately lead to severe disruption for the travelling public, it urgently needs to hold constructive pay talks.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A total of 900 bus drivers in South Yorkshire are holding two days of strike action after rejecting the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098insulting\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 offer of a one year pay freeze, Unite said today (June 13). &nbsp; The workers, employed by First South Yorkshire Limited, will strike for 24 hours on Saturday, June 29 and Monday, July 1, after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"South Yorkshire bus drivers to strike over pay freeze offer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18235"}],"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=18235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25211,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18235\/revisions\/25211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}