On the 3rd of April Manchester trades council held a rally and a march to protest at the treatment of bus drivers with go North West. The firm want to change working contracts to reduce pay and conditions.
The talks between management at Go North West and Unite, the UK’s largest union, failed on Thursday, April 1, with Unite claiming bus drivers who had worked through the pandemic ‘deserved better’.
Unite says the dispute is a result of the company deciding to fire and rehire its bus drivers and attempt to force them to accept vastly inferior contracts.
Over 400 drivers who are members of Unite have been on all out strike since Sunday February 28.
They calculated Go North West is expecting its drivers to undertake 130 hours of unpaid work per annum, resulting in drivers being £2,500 a year worse off, and intends to alter the existing sick pay policy, resulting in a 67 per cent cut in sick pay for workers with over five years’ service.
On Saturday hundreds of supporters of the striking drivers turned up in solidarity with the drivers.
To try and break the strike Go North West are using scab bus and coach companies to cover the affected routes. This means that some very old and hardly roadworthy vehicles are being used. Many of these do not have disabled access. In point of fact Go North West are breaking the law.
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