Support striking drivers to help your own futures
WE ARE into day four of the bus drivers strike at Queens Road depot and, as an employee of Go North West, I feel it only right that some of the company’s misinformation be put under the microscope.
GNW claim that Queens Road depot is losing £1.8m a year. I don’t doubt the truth of this, but the blame lies at the door of poor management practices inherited from the previous owner of the company, First Bus. Remember that as recently as 2012 First were fined £285k by the traffic commissioner for what she described as complacency (MEN 13/3/2012).
Since then, little has been done to address the real issues that afflict Queens Road depot. Meanwhile, tens of thousands have been wasted on vanity projects, like the repair of the clock on the corner of the depot (£8k), the installation of a new CCTV system (£46k) and a digital screen below the clock. For a company that is losing money, they splash it around like water.
GNW also claim that our conditions have not been updated since 1980. Again, they are right, and I well remember losing things like enhanced payments for overtime, but so what? Can we assume that in years to come a new generation of drivers will have to accept yet another downgrade in their conditions of service simply because we signed this contract?
GNW are keen to point the finger at a handful of outdated practices at Queen’s Road. What they fail to mention is that agreement has been reached on the vast majority of those issues.
To suggest that we are striking to protect things like excessive ‘spare’ duties and time to change nonexistent manual destination blinds at the terminus is simply nonsense. I, like most drivers, find time spent hanging around to be one of the least pleasant parts of the job. We all want to be moving.
We all deeply regret any inconvenience that we are causing to other key workers and to the general public, but remember that our pickets represent a line in the sand that we simply cannot allow GNW to cross. Please support us for your own futures, if not for ours. GNW bus driver, name and address supplied
Unique traits
I MUST tell you how much I enjoy reading about the lives of Emma and Thomas, Richard Irvine’s twins.
I have grandchildren and greatgrandchildren ranging from five months to 32 years. And have seen similarities in all of them.
We have two sisters where the 12-year-old can’t do enough for us, from cleaning out cupboards and dusting etc, while her 14-year-old sister supervises her, and because of the different temperaments it works. We have said the 14-year-old will be Prime Minister while the 12-yearold will be her wheels at the back.
It’s fascinating to watch them all growing up and you just have to accept that they are all so different. What would the world be like if we were all the same?