Over the past two weeks, over 300 Arriva workers in Northumberland have been balloted for strike action.
Today, the ballot result was announced. With an 80.9% turnout and an overwhelming 98.4% approval for action, these workers are clearly up for a fight!
The drivers and engineers, based at depots in Blyth and Ashington and organised in Unite, have rejected a miserly 4% pay ‘increase’ – a real terms cut given the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Just last year, Arriva was snapped up by a US private equity group for a tidy £1.4 billion. Clearly this multi-national company isn’t strapped for cash!
Unite says that the drivers are already the lowest paid of the three main bus operators in the North East, earning less than those employed by Go North East and Stagecoach. This latest insulting ‘offer’ is yet one more slap in the face for the workforce.
This feeling was readily backed up by the workers themselves.
The Communist spoke to a driver at one of the depots, who told an all-too-familiar tale of ever-increasing workloads, and ever-decreasing living standards.
He often has to work far in excess of his contracted hours due to staff shortages, and is exhausted on shift, with all the implications for passenger safety that this entails.
“Our pay and conditions have been chipped away at for years, and morale has never been so low,” he commented.
He and his workmates are determined to fight back against their greedy bosses, stating that the latest ‘offer’ is “the straw that broke the camel’s back. We’re not gonna take it anymore!”
The Arriva workers have taken great inspiration from the recent victory of Go North East drivers, who fought a magnificent month-long battle against their employer, resulting in an 11.2% pay rise – proving once again that militancy pays!
With the class struggle on the rise again in Britain, the stage is set for huge battles between workers and bosses.
Ultimately, the only way to ensure decent pay and conditions for these workers, as well as a reliable and affordable service for the public, is a fully-nationalised transport system, run under democratic workers’ control.
