Roughly 1,000 Unite members working at Metroline Manchester have begun striking today following a breakdown of negotiations around pay.
Workers at the Sharston, Hyde Road, Ashton and Wythenshawe depots will walk out between today (30 September) and Thursday (2 October), with major disruption expected across all services.
Unite has stated at the reason for the strike is a dispute surrounding pay, with workers believing that pay offers ‘do not go far enough to address years of low pay’.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:Metroline has consistently put profits before people throughout this dispute and workers have quite rightly had enough.
Bus drivers do difficult and important jobs and deserve to be paid fairly. They will have Unite's full backing throughout the industrial action.
Some planned action by workers at two other firms within the Bee Network have been partly suspended following a revised pay offer.
110 Unite members at First Bus Rochdale have also called off their strike, alongside roughly 1,000 drivers working for Stagecoach at sites based across the Oldham, Stockport and Middleton depots.
Unite regional officer Colin Hayden said:Following negotiations between Unite and these employers, revised pay offers have been put forward for some of the workers involved in this dispute. We have therefore suspended strike action to allow members at Stagecoach and First Bus Rochdale to vote on this.
However workers at Metroline will continue with industrial action as planned as the employer has not made an offer deemed acceptable to our members.
Further co-ordinated strike action has been announced for 10, 11, 13, 18, 23 and 24 October by drivers at all three companies, pending the outcome of ballots.
