Subscribe to RSSBus Strike Hits 55,000
55,000 Wellington bus commuters will be affected by tomorrow’s bus strike.
Drivers and other workers employed by GO Wellington and Valley Flyer (NZ Bus. Airport Flyer) and another employer, Mana Coach Services (Souter Holdings Ltd), will walk off the job at 9am tomorrow until 2pm. Runcimans bus services will operate as normal.
NZ Bus general manager (Operations), Zane Fulljames, says the union action has happened before negotiations started.
Students will have to walk, cycle to daytime lectures
GO Wellington, Valley Flyer and Mana Coach Services have been communicating with the Wellington Tramways Union and the M&C Union to define a Bargaining Process Agreement (BPA).
“The unions’ wish is to create a regional Collective Employment Agreement that would cover the majority of bus public transport in the Wellington region,” said Mr Fulljames.
The purpose of a BPA is to set out the process under which negotiations can be conducted between the parties. GO Wellington and Valley Flyer “have said that they could work on amending the BPA used during the last collective negotiation held in 2008 at GO Wellington to reflect the different requirements needed for a multi-employer Collective Agreement.
GO Wellington and Valley Flyer also said they could work with the BPA proposed by Mana Coach Services.
GO Wellington, Valley Flyer and the unions had agreed the first dates of negotiation would happen in the first week of May.
“However, on Monday, 26 April formal notice of strike action was received from the Wellington Tramways Union and the M&C Union advising they were dissatisfied with progress and that they intended to undertake strike action on Wednesday, 28 April.
“At the time strike notice was received, the parties had yet to formally exchange claims. The strike notice did not provide any options for remedy.”
Earlier,the secretary of the union’s Wellington branch , Kevin O’Sullivan, said that the employers (NZ Bus & Mana Coach Services) have “refused to agree to a realistic process for negotiations, a process which has not been an issue previously.
“The delaying tactics used by the employers need to cease so that positive and constructive negotiations for the drivers of Wellington’s buses can commence.”
1 Comments
Just not good enough. We deserve much better from our drivers. This is just another example of the contempt and disregard most drivers show towards us, the fare paying, patient and ultimately short-changed customer.
We’re more than just “self loading cargo” guys! How about a “positive and constructive” apology to everyone affected by this quite selfish and heavy handed decision to deprive people of a service they rely on to get by? As there are no options to remedy the strike, it really just looks like some free paid time off for all and sundry!