{"id":2963,"date":"2015-02-04T17:22:38","date_gmt":"2015-02-04T17:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2963"},"modified":"2015-02-05T13:01:47","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T13:01:47","slug":"political-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2963","title":{"rendered":"Political football"},"content":{"rendered":"
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London drivers are set to take strike action tomorrow (Thursday, February 5) in a dispute over deeply unfair pay inequalities among the capital\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 18 different operators.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a long-standing but ultimately straightforward dispute \u00e2\u20ac\u201c drivers are only asking for one, uniform rate of pay for doing the same work as their colleagues contracted by different operators, work that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s often so similar it involves operating the same model of bus on the same exact route.<\/p>\n

 
\nAhead of the strike, however, Transport for London (TfL) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a supposedly neutral party, considering its status as a local government body \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is actively seeking to undermine efforts to resolve the dispute, a move Unite has tonight condemned.<\/p>\n

 
\nTfL\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s misleading comments as the strike approaches does a disservice to all involved in the dispute, argued Unite regional officer Wayne King.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTfL should be playing a constructive role in facilitating a resolution to the dispute with London\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 18 bus operators, who despite our tireless efforts over two years are refusing to talk collectively about ending pay inequality,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 King said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bInstead, TfL is seeking to inflame the situation and undermine hopes of resolving the dispute with misinformed and misleading comments,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAll we are asking for is a collective forum to discuss how we can end pay disparities over a sensible timeframe.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPlain scaremongering\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nLaurie Carrigan, a Unite member and bus driver for Go-Ahead London, who explained to UniteLive earlier today why he and his colleagues would be striking tomorrow, was flabbergasted by the contents of an \u00e2\u20ac\u015bopen letter\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 TfL boss Leon Daniels published on its site today.<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nDaniels noted in his letter that pay agreements negotiated by individual bus operators \u00e2\u20ac\u015bregularly resulted in pay rises above the rate of inflation,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 a notion which Carrigan scoffed at.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI have been a London bus driver for five years and my take home pay is pretty much the same as when I started,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Carrigan argued. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf you are unlucky enough to have to move garages then your pay is very much down!<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat about the drivers who have been the victim of the tendering process?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Carrigan went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen they are forced to move with their route to a garage miles away, and if they want to transfer back closer to home, they have to take a pay cut onto a company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 5\/10 year starter rate!<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNo mention of these dirty tricks from Mr Daniels. Maybe he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not aware of them?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nCarrigan, a seasoned driver who works in Waterloo and is intimately acquainted with bus operators\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 unfair terms and conditions, denounced Daniel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s claim that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite demands could mean drivers have to work on days and at times they currently don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nThis statement Carrigan highlighted as patently false and insisted it was \u00e2\u20ac\u015bplain scaremongering.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nWhen the TfL boss noted in his letter that the \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmost worrying thing about [drivers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 demands] is the additional costs\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, Carrigan replied:<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHere we have the real reason in the end. If costs are a concern, how about we start by looking at the huge profits the private company shareholders benefit from every year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from TfL contracts funded by the fare-paying public and taxpayers?\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nCarrigan went on to point out that the public, too, should be aware of TfL bosses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 outrageous expenses, revealed recently in the London Evening Standard<\/a>, which found commissioner Sir Peter Hendy purchasing fine bottles of wine priced at \u00c2\u014145 a pop, all on the public\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dime.<\/p>\n

 
\nFailing passengers<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nKing argued that TfL\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interference ultimately does a grave disservice to passengers and the men and women who keep London\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s buses on the road.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTo suggest [what we are asking for] is unlawful is misinformed and to suggest fares may rise when the capital\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bus operators are making combined profits of \u00c2\u0141171.7 million per year is misleading,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 King said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe current situation is unsustainable,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bJust as you wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t employ police officers on different rates of pay across London, neither should you with bus drivers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he went on to say, noting that the two-thirds of the public in previous surveys agree.<\/p>\n

 
\nCarrigan, whose livelihood is at stake, along with the livelihoods of almost 30,000 other drivers, put it best when he summed up the current situation:<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt does seem strange to me that all the different companies and TfL can agree to have all the buses painted red, all the destination blinds glowing white, all the fares fixed the same, but no talks are allowed about the fair treatment of the human being behind the wheel responsible for the safety and comfort of six million TFL passengers a day.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nStay tuned on UNITElive as we report from the picket line tomorrow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

London drivers are set to take strike action tomorrow (Thursday, February 5) in a dispute over deeply unfair pay inequalities among the capital\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 18 different operators.   It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a long-standing but ultimately straightforward dispute \u00e2\u20ac\u201c drivers are only asking for one, uniform rate of pay for doing the same work as their colleagues contracted by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"Unite urges TfL to stop undermining efforts to resolve London bus dispute","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2963"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2964,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2963\/revisions\/2964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}