Picket Notebook

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Page context: Home > Transport International Magazine > Issue 18 January 2005 > Picket Notebook

Andrew Dodgshon listens to views on the picket lines in Sheffield, UK, as the bus industry's longest strike in 30 years nears its conclusion

It's a sultry summer in Sheffield but the temperature is rising in the city and across South Yorkshire as pickets form at First South Yorkshire garages in what has become the longest strike in the bus industry for over 30 years. Sheffield Interchange, normally a hub of activity with buses coming and going like a colony of worker ants, is silent.

The normally buzzing cafes stand idle with cakes and sandwiches going begging to the few lonely souls who are sheltering from the heat. Around 200 protest at the main Olive Grove depot in Sheffield and there are strong turnouts at the Doncaster, Rotherham and Halfway garages. In all, nearly 1,500 drivers have joined the strike over pay, hours and working conditions.

There's a strong feeling on the picket line at Olive Grove. Everyone has had enough of private companies running our bus industry, taking the profits but giving little in return. One driver says First made nearly GBP 10 million across South Yorkshire last year, then adds that they would have made even more if they had a happy workforce. The company's latest offer of a 30p an hour pay rise (with an extra 27p an hour in the second year) to be part financed by not paying the first day of any time off sick has just been overturned by 723 to 502.

That mood has got stronger the longer the strike has gone on. A woman who has been on the new starter rate for three years says it's about respect. "They don't know the meaning of the word," she says. "We are their profit but they're not interested in us."

It is a theme which is picked up by others on the growing picket line. The job is hard they say, but it has changed for the worse in recent years. Vacancies arise but they are rarely filled for long. Attacks and assaults are commonplace. The new breed of managers is more interested in management theory than the concept of public service. No pay rise is ever straightforward. The paltry GBP 35 a year bonus for not having a serious accident has gone. Much of the uniform allowance has gone. Above all, the pride in the job has been taken away.

Men with over 20 and 30 years service are leaving without so much as thank you from this new breed of balance sheet managers let alone any memento of a life in public service. Their colleagues explain how the pressure has mounted as the timetables have got tighter and turnaround times reduced further and further.

Changing goalposts
These men and women are unafraid of hard work but demand respect in return for their commitment. Perhaps this is why the sick pay issue appears to have a touched a raw nerve. First South Yorkshire's current deal for sickness is to pay only 70 per cent of basic pay. The claim by the local management that by also not paying for the first day of sickness they are following good commercial practice is ridiculed.

One of the branch officials reels off some alarming statistics. Seventy out of every 100 new drivers leaves within their first year. Four hundred drivers, over a quarter of the total workforce, left in 2003 and a significant number of those on the lowest pay rates have to claim tax benefits for those on low incomes to make ends meet. This latter point means they cannot work overtime without losing money. This places a heavy burden on the other drivers to keep the routes going - at a cost of tiredness, back pain, constant colds.. all the hallmarks of working under undue pressure.

Being part of the longest bus strike for over 30 years is a badge of honour which was never sought and is reluctantly accepted. These are men and women who want to work but some feel there are powerful forces set against them, with goalposts changing as they get close to an agreement. There are real suspicions that First Group at a national level is pulling the strings. Word spreads that First settled at GBP 8.45 an hour just up the road in Bradford and at GBP 8 an hour in Glasgow a matter of weeks ago.

So, the struggle continues. The solidarity discos are planned, the barricades grow stronger. Fire fighters bring their donations to the picket line in a conspicuous show of trade union solidarity. Community transport vehicles and private cars toot their horns in support as they drive by.

A matter of days later the local management bows to reality and cuts the strings to the pay offer to pave the way for a deal which is recommended and accepted. Victory is declared. There's a dignified and defiant return to work.

Andrew Dogshon is a press officer for the Transport & General Workers Union in Great Britain.

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Issue 18 January 2005

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