{"id":9466,"date":"2016-08-08T15:34:50","date_gmt":"2016-08-08T14:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9466"},"modified":"2016-08-08T15:34:50","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T14:34:50","slug":"phenomenal-public-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9466","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Phenomenal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 public support"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Bus drivers in Weymouth and Bridport have been buoyed up by \u00e2\u20ac\u0098phenomenal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 public support in their two-month industrial action against \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poverty pay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite also branded the claims of First Hampshire &amp; Dorset management that the more than 110 drivers are refusing to accept arbitration as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098absolute lies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The war of words hotted up as Unite announced today (August 8) that a further week of strike action would start at 4.30am on Monday, August 15 and ending on 4.29am,\u00c2\u00a0 Monday, August 22. This follows on from the current strike action taking place this week.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is absolute lies from the company that our members are refusing to go to arbitration \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they would embrace such a process to solve the long-running \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poverty pay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dispute, but only if the conciliation talks were genuine,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite regional officer Bob Lanning.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe sticking point is that the management wants any agreement to be binding, which negates the concept that such talks should be wide-ranging and any deal hammered out then being put to a vote of the drivers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI would like to thank the Dorset public for their unswerving support of the drivers. It has been truly phenomenal \u00e2\u20ac\u201c our members could not have continued without that strong groundswell of support from the community in which they live,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Lanning added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have had many financial donations, including a retired person who gave \u00c2\u0141100 to the strike fund \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heart-warming.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A fortnight ago, Unite exposed the fact the company, part of the highly profitable First Group, was docking company sick pay on strike days for cancer sufferers and those with serious heart conditions, even though they had been \u00e2\u20ac\u0098signed off\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 sick by their GP.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite has said that the pay dispute would cost just \u00c2\u014148,000-a-year to settle, while the losses caused by the six week-old dispute is now \u00c2\u0141250,000 and could reach\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c2\u0141500,000, if the industrial action continues for another six weeks.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bus drivers in Weymouth and Bridport have been buoyed up by \u00e2\u20ac\u0098phenomenal\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 public support in their two-month industrial action against \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poverty pay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. &nbsp; Unite also branded the claims of First Hampshire &amp; Dorset management that the more than 110 drivers are refusing to accept arbitration as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098absolute lies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122. &nbsp; The war of words hotted up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[176,211,554,565],"wps_subtitle":"Community in solidarity as bus strike continues","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9466"}],"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=9466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9468,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9466\/revisions\/9468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}