Stagecoach bus battles over pay in South Wales and North East England + Llanelli postal workers win

Bus drivers working for Stagecoach in South Wales renewed their strike over pay on Monday.

Workers in the Unite union hit the Cwmbran, Blackwood and Brynmawr depots

The action began on Sunday 18 October. Talks at the Acas arbitration service did not produce any acceptable offer.

Stagecoach has refused a demand to pay drivers £10.50 an hour. Instead bosses offered only £10.10 an hour—and with reduced sick pay and removal of paid breaks. Mohammed Ismail, a Stagecoach driver for seven years, told the South Wales Argus newspaper, “I worked six days a week, right the way through the pandemic and got nothing for it, no thank you.

“We made the profit for the shareholders.

“All we are asking for is a pound extra to live on. This is not a want, it is a need.”

Bosses outrageously described the £10.50 an hour claim as part of “fantasy pay demands”.

800 could strike in North East England

More than 800 drivers, engineers, cleaners, supervisors and managers at Stagecoach North East have voted overwhelmingly to hold 12 days of strikes over pay.

Stagecoach North East is the trading name for firms in North East England—Busways Travel Ltd and Cleveland Transit Ltd.

Workers voted 92 percent vote in favour of strikes.

The 24-hour strikes are on 8,10,12,16 18, 20, 22, 24, 26 and 30 November and on 2 and 4 December.

They will hit two depots in the Newcastle area at Slatyford and Walkergate as well as South Shields, Sunderland and on Teesside at Stockton and Hartlepool.

Stagecoach bosses use “divide and rule” with different rates of pay at different depots.

And they have offered just a 2 percent increase for this year.

Last week the RPI inflation figure was announced as 4.9 percent.

Victory for Llanelli postal workers

Postal workers at a Royal Mail delivery office in Llanelli, South Wales, seem to have defeated a victimisation. They were set to strike again this week in defence of a sacked colleague.

But a CWU union official announced on Monday that Gary Evans had been reinstated.

The workers already held a strong one-day strike in his defence earlier this month—with 98 percent of them voting for action and only management crossing the picket line.

Their next strike was set to take place on Thursday of this week.