{"id":9317,"date":"2016-07-18T12:08:42","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T11:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9317"},"modified":"2016-07-19T12:17:48","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T11:17:48","slug":"pouring-petrol-on-the-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9317","title":{"rendered":"Pouring petrol on the fire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thousands of Unite First Bus members across the country are considering industrial action against the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attacks on pay and working conditions.<\/p>\n

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First Bus is facing pending industrial action in Glasgow, Bradford, Doncaster, Halifax, Huddersfield, Rotherham, Sheffield and York due to bosses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbullish attitude\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 towards wage negotiations.<\/p>\n

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Around 4000 drivers, engineers, cleaners and maintenance staff in Yorkshire will be balloting for industrial action, including strike action, in the coming days. First Bus employees in Glasgow are also considering their options.<\/p>\n

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The Yorkshire ballot comes after a month of ongoing strikes<\/a> at the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Weymouth and Bridport devision, as well as strikes by First Bus employees in Leeds<\/a> and Manchester<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe shop stewards have told their respective line managers that Unite would ballot its members imminently for industrial action at the aggressive stance that the company has recently adopted towards its dedicated workforce,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite regional officer for Yorkshire, Steve Clark.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is a feeling that the uncertainty caused by last month\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Brexit vote has encouraged the management to take advantage of the current situation to roll-back on pay and conditions. The next thing will be reducing bus services, so they can squeeze the last ounce of profit from what should be a public service.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Despite announcing profits of \u00c2\u014152m last month, First Group management are neglecting to settle wage claims, ignoring attempts to arrange meetings with reps and closing trade union offices where problems can be dealt with before they escalate.<\/p>\n

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In Weymouth bosses have suspended automatic deductions from member\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wage packets for Unite membership fees, in an attempt to punish the union for the dispute. Unite national officer for passenger transport Bobby Morton said the move \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwas like pouring petrol onto the fire.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Speaking about the situation nationwide Morton said: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAcross the country union officers are telling me that First are being particularly difficult over wage negotiations, which basically means they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going after terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe announcement of a \u00c2\u014152m profit coincided with the company adopting a very bullish attitude towards First Bus members. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if they were expecting more money, but in my opinion they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting very very greedy and taking what they see as the soft option to increase profits \u00e2\u20ac\u201c by going after their employees.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Morton was clear that if First Bus continued in its attempts the company could expect a long hot summer.<\/p>\n

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He said: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite wishes to negotiate in the traditional fashion but if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re provoked by an attack on terms and conditions then we will strike back.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of Unite First Bus members across the country are considering industrial action against the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attacks on pay and working conditions.   First Bus is facing pending industrial action in Glasgow, Bradford, Doncaster, Halifax, Huddersfield, Rotherham, Sheffield and York due to bosses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbullish attitude\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 towards wage negotiations.   Around 4000 drivers, engineers, cleaners and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[176,211,554],"wps_subtitle":"First Bus attacks workers terms and conditions","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9317"}],"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=9317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9318,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9317\/revisions\/9318"}],"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=9317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}