{"id":9698,"date":"2016-09-06T17:10:27","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T16:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=9698"},"modified":"2016-09-06T17:29:39","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T16:29:39","slug":"xmas-bus-strike-on-the-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=9698","title":{"rendered":"Xmas bus strike on the cards?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>The Weymouth bus driver \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poverty pay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dispute could continue to Christmas, after company bosses demanded \u00e2\u20ac\u0098draconian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 conditions be imposed before arbitration talks could start.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>More than 110 bus drivers in Weymouth and Bridport, members of Unite, voted overwhelmingly to reject the pre-conditions demanded by First Hampshire &amp; Dorset Ltd, as they would have \u00e2\u20ac\u0098hobbled\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 the talks &#8211; under the auspices of the conciliation service, Acas &#8211; before they had even began.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The drivers are on strike this week, ending at just before midnight on Sunday, September 11. This will see the end of the 12-week mandate for industrial action &#8211; the strikes started in mid-June.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>However, the drivers have voted for a further industrial action ballot to be held which, depending on the result, could mean a further 12 weeks of strike action running over the Christmas\/New Year period.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur members voted overwhelmingly to withdraw from the Acas talks because of the draconian conditions that the management tried to impose before the talks had even began,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite regional officer Bob Lanning.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe talks about poverty pay would have been hobbled before they had started.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s long-standing view that any deal hammered out at the proposed arbitration talks should be put to a vote of the members, which is normal employment practice,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe company wanted the talks to be legally binding, which would have meant that our members would not have a vote on any deal that had been hammered out in their name. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not fair.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe company also wanted a clause saying there could be no industrial action for three months following the arbitration talks. This could have meant that company sacking the drivers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and they could not take any action to protect their jobs. Again, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not fair.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe now have several weeks before the result of the next industrial action ballot is known, which could see strikes continuing into the Christmas period,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Lanning went on to say.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe would urge management to use this interval to negotiate a fair settlement and end this misery that the company by its anti-union actions is inflicting on the travelling public.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/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 three month-old dispute are now more than \u00c2\u0141250,000 and are set to reach \u00c2\u0141500,000, if the dispute continues into the autumn.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Weymouth bus driver \u00e2\u20ac\u0098poverty pay\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 dispute could continue to Christmas, after company bosses demanded \u00e2\u20ac\u0098draconian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 conditions be imposed before arbitration talks could start. &nbsp; More than 110 bus drivers in Weymouth and Bridport, members of Unite, voted overwhelmingly to reject the pre-conditions demanded by First Hampshire &amp; Dorset Ltd, as they would have \u00e2\u20ac\u0098hobbled\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 [&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":[211,202,565],"wps_subtitle":"'Draconian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pre-conditions rejected ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9698"}],"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=9698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9699,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9698\/revisions\/9699"}],"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=9698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}