{"id":26575,"date":"2020-11-16T16:55:08","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T16:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=26575"},"modified":"2020-11-16T16:55:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T16:55:09","slug":"first-west-yorkshire-bus-drivers-balloted-for-strike-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=26575","title":{"rendered":"First West Yorkshire bus drivers balloted for strike action"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p>The travelling public in West Yorkshire would greatly benefit with the restoration of a full pre-Covid-19 bus schedules\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 agreement and normal timetables, Unite said today (November 16).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nearly 400 bus drivers in Bradford, employed by First West Yorkshire, will be balloted for strike action from Monday, November 23 in a dispute over the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s refusal to restore the bus schedule to pre-pandemic levels as, the union says, traffic and passenger movements have returned to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098near normal-\u00c2\u00a0 but members are still working on \u00e2\u20ac\u0098lock down\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unite said that it hoped that the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reluctance to restore the full terms and conditions and timetable, unlike other operators in West Yorkshire, was not down to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098old fashioned penny-pinching\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and called for immediate and constructive talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unite said that its 389 members at the Bowling Back Lane site were under a great deal of stress as they are made to work long shifts, covering for absent colleagues.&nbsp; Retention and recruitment problems, the restoration of the normal terms and conditions, and timetable would require a new look at workforce requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unite deputy regional secretary Tas Sangha, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs passenger numbers rise to almost pre-Covid levels, the company needs to restore the agreements for First in Bradford. We hope that its reluctance to do so is not down to old fashioned-penny pinching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs more and more people return to their place of work, you will need more buses on the road to enable proper social distancing for passengers and we want to avoid a situation where queues of bus users are lined up in the cold weather waiting for a reduced number of buses to appear,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members, classed as essential workers, have been under a lot of stress covering for sick and absent colleagues during the pandemic, so we believe that the swift restoration of a full service will reduce health &amp; safety risks for drivers and passengers,&#8221; Sangha went on to say. &#8220;There also needs to be an analysis of workforce requirements during the winter months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members are reluctant to take strike action during the continuing national emergency, but feel they have been pushed to the limit over a long period of time and that First management has failed to grasp the big picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe would like to hold urgent talks to resolve this issue as soon as possible and avert the need for industrial action.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ballot closes on Monday, December 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>By Shaun Noble<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The travelling public in West Yorkshire would greatly benefit with the restoration of a full pre-Covid-19 bus schedules\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 agreement and normal timetables, Unite said today (November 16). Nearly 400 bus drivers in Bradford, employed by First West Yorkshire, will be balloted for strike action from Monday, November 23 in a dispute over the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s refusal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1308,1],"tags":[1200,176,211,1295],"wps_subtitle":"Call for West Yorkshire bus company to restore drivers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 terms and conditions, as passenger numbers rise to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098near normal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 levels","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26575"}],"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=26575"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26577,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26575\/revisions\/26577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}