Arriva Durham County Ltd (covers Teesside, Durham and Whitby) drivers to go on strike 6/1 - 12/1)

[ainsworth74]

Saw this in the local paper:

Talks to be held between Arriva and Unite in hope of avoiding Christmas strike

Bus drivers in Redcar and Stockton are set to go on a week-long strike this month

Talks will be held between union members and Arriva management in the hope of avoiding a bus strike in the run up to Christmas.

Around 650 bus drivers are set to go on a week-long strike after Unite claimed those working for Arriva Durham County Ltd are the second lowest paid drivers of all Arriva bus companies across the UK.

Drivers at Redcar, Stockton, Darlington, Durham, and Whitby will walk out on December 16, until 11.59pm on Saturday, December 22, after voting by 95% for strike action for a £1 an hour rise from next March.

Another meeting between Unite and Arriva will be held on Wednesday, December 5 in the hope of negotiating a deal that will avoid potential travel misery.

A spokeswoman for Arriva North-east said: "Arriva Bus is currently in negotiation with Unite Union regarding a new pay award to Arriva bus drivers in the North-east region.

"Unite has served notice to Arriva that it is to call a seven-day strike from Sunday, December 16 if its demands are not met.

"A further meeting between Arriva and Unite is planned for Wednesday, December 5 in an attempt to reach agreement and avoid a strike."

Unite regional officer Bob Bolam said on Monday "the last thing our members want is to take such industrial action in the run-up to Christmas".

If the strikes go ahead, Arriva may only be able to run limited 'token' bus services.

Source

I must admit when I've looked in the past the wages for Bus drivers in this area do seem to be peanuts so I can well believe they're amongst the lowest paid in Arriva. Plus an extra £1 an hour is hardly an unreasonable request to make!

 

[overthewater]

Who are the lowest paid?

 

[Qwerty133]

Basic economics says that the drivers in the part of the country that costs less to live should be paid less than others elsewhere. If they want a higher wage they should come up with a more convincing argument that 'its not fair that others get paid more'.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Saw this in the local paper:



Source

I must admit when I've looked in the past the wages for Bus drivers in this area do seem to be peanuts so I can well believe they're amongst the lowest paid in Arriva. Plus an extra £1 an hour is hardly an unreasonable request to make!

I think we would all like to see the drivers get an increase. As has been said, they may be amongst the lowest paid in Arriva but then again, the cost of living is generally lower in terms of house prices.

That said, saying that "an extra £1 an hour is hardly an unreasonable request" perhaps understates the impact. Have you worked out the maths?

 

[Mwanesh]

7days on strike .Stockton Stagecoach must be rubbing its hands if it goes ahead it might be the end of Arriva in Stockton.Its the other areas where people will be stranded .

 

[Andyh82]

Not saying the strike is right or wrong, but it wouldn’t surprise me that Arriva Durham County are paid the second lowest, as cost of living is probably the second lowest. You can probably buy a whole street in Durha, for the price of a one bed flat in London

The drivers need to be careful though as unlike the railways, If the strike effects the financial situation of the operation, Arriva can close the depot and sack all the staff without much comeback.

 

[overthewater]

7days on strike .Stockton Stagecoach must be rubbing its hands if it goes ahead it might be the end of Arriva in Stockton.Its the other areas where people will be stranded .

Does Stagecoach pay more than Arriva?

 

[Mwanesh]

Does Stagecoach pay more than Arriva?

I think Stagecoach is somewhere between 10 abd 11 pounds .

 

[Basher]

Just read in our local paper that Arriva buses are to strike for a week. The drivers want an extra £1 an hour.

 

[peterblue]

Comparing driver pay in the North East compared to elsewhere, e.g., London is somewhat of a fallacy.

There's a lower cost of living in the North East.

 

[Megafuss]

Just read in our local paper that Arriva buses are to strike for a week. The drivers want an extra £1 an hour.

Maybe the drivers at Darlo should look at what is happening at ARRIVA in Guildford as a guide to where this may end

 

[higthomas]

Maybe the drivers at Darlo should look at what is happening at ARRIVA in Guildford as a guide to where this may end

What is happening at Arriva in Guildford?

 

[Megafuss]

What is happening at Arriva in Guildford?

Arriva want to terminate the contracts of all the drivers and rehire them at a lower wage. Just Google News search "Arriva Guildford"(not sure how to post links)

 

[Statto]

Arriva want to terminate the contracts of all the drivers and rehire them at a lower wage. Just Google News search "Arriva Guildford"(not sure how to post links)

Quite easy to post links, move the arrow cursor to the URL, [address in the box at the top of the page arrow cursor should turn into a large I], click left mouse button, URL should be highlighted, then press Ctrl+C together to copy & paste the URL, go to the post & press Ctrl+V together the URL should come up like this.

https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/guildford-bus-drivers-face-pay-15538200

 

[Volvodart]

I believe the strike (theme subject) has been called off for the drivers to be ballotted on a revised offer.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Comparing driver pay in the North East compared to elsewhere, e.g., London is somewhat of a fallacy.

There's a lower cost of living in the North East.

However the Durham and Teesside drivers get paid quite a bit less than the Northumbria drivers, which is where their beef is.

As for firing and rehiring, it does remain a legal option, but very unlikely to be a practical one.

 

[Jonny]

It seems that the offer was rejected and that the strike is going ahead...

Some ticket acceptance arrangements are in place, and one rival company is increasing capacity on affected routes.

https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/arriva-release-emergency-timetables-go-15626937
Arriva release emergency timetables as Go North East announce extra services ahead of strike action
Arriva will be operating emergency timetables for its services in the Tees Valley, East Cleveland, County Durham and parts of North Yorkshire

Emergency bus timetables have been released by operator Arriva ahead of next week's strike action.

The timetables have been put in place for the company's bus services in the Tees Valley, East Cleveland and parts of North Yorkshire as well as County Durham.

The timetables will operate between Sunday, January 6 and Saturday, January 12.

A post on the Arriva website reads: "We do not underestimate the inconvenience that the disruption which the industrial action called by Unite the Union will cause to our customers across this area.

"We will be operating emergency timetables for Arriva bus services in Co Durham, the Tees Valley, East Cleveland and parts of North Yorkshire between Sunday 6th and Saturday 12th January 2019."

It adds: "Stagecoach North East will accept all Arriva tickets in Teesside from weekly and upwards in all formats and also Middlesbrough College Student ID cards on their services that are along the line of or close to Arriva routes."

p:nth-of-type(6)","type":"performPlaceholder","relativePos":"after"}" data-placeholder-placeholder="" data-response-start="7413" data-type="placeholder">
"Northern Rail will accept travel on the services listed below for passengers holding valid Arriva day and season tickets, along with free travel for concessionary travellers (after 9.30) and relevant college id cards for the duration of the industrial action."

The services are:

• Bishop Auckland – Darlington
• Darlington – Stockton (Thornaby) – Middlesbrough
• Saltburn – Redcar – Middlesbrough
• Whitby – Nunthorpe – Middlesbrough
• Hartlepool – Seaham – Sunderland

Tickets can be presented on paper, on a smartcard or on the Arriva Bus mobile app.

Arriva North East bus services in Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland will run normally during the strike period and are unaffected by the industrial action - except Service X12.

The Arriva emergency timetables for Darlington, Teesside, East Cleveland and Whitby can be accessed here.

While, the emergency timetables for the County Durham area can be accessed here.

For more information visit www.arrivabus.co.uk/north-east/floating/strike-buses/

Meanwhile, Go North East has said it will be deploying extra buses during the week-long strike.

Extra vehicles will be deployed to offer more capacity on the Castles Express X21 service between Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor, Durham/Framwellgate Moor (for New College and University Hospital of North Durham) and Newcastle.

Larger vehicles will also be running on the Wear Xpress services which operate in the Peterlee area with connections to Hartlepool and Sunderland.

The company will also have standby resources available to support any overcrowding that may occur.

Martijn Gilbert, managing director of Go North East, said: "It's really important that our existing customers know that not only will our services be operating as normal, but we will also be deploying extra resources to help cope with increased demand on routes that might be busier than usual due to the cancellation or reduction of services during this time, by other operators.

"Despite the extra cost to us of running these additional buses, our standard fares will apply and in fact we are currently running a January sale for all users of our bus services, new and existing, which offers up to 16% off weekly tickets on our smartphone app.

"The app also provides journey planning and bus tracking tools, which are particularly useful for users who might be using our services for the first time.

"Just search for 'Go North East' in the app store or on google play".

(The operator web page with details is https://www.arrivabus.co.uk/north-east/floating/strike-buses/ )

 

[Tetchytyke]

The difference between Northumbria and County Durham is somewhere between £1 and £2 per hour. For the drivers to overwhelmingly vote to lose a week's wages over it, industrial relations must be absolutely toxic.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. Arriva are refusing to refund tickets that can't be used, which is going down about as well as a vegan sausage roll.l

 

[158756]

The difference between Northumbria and County Durham is somewhere between £1 and £2 per hour. For the drivers to overwhelmingly vote to lose a week's wages over it, industrial relations must be absolutely toxic.

£1 or £2 an hour is a lot if you're not paid very much. Even at £1 an hour they'd recover the money lost by the strike in 8-10 weeks. What chance they have of achieving that I don't know.

 

[overthewater]

How much more tax could these pay end up paying in the long run?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

How much more tax could these pay end up paying in the long run?

Sorry but don’t understand the question?

Who are “these” and what tax?

 

[overthewater]

Replace These with They.

The point is this, £1 per hour pay rise is nearly £2000 more a year etc etc for standard 8 hour shift over 12 months etc. Its possible with the with tax allowance increase a good whack could still be taken in basic income tax.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Even at £1 an hour they'd recover the money lost by the strike in 8-10 weeks.

True enough, I'd not thought of it like that, £30 a week after tax is an extra £1500 a year.

I support the drivers btw, the wages they get are poor, even compared to other locsl operators. That said, Go's wages are pretty dire in places and strikes there are unheard of.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Replace These with They.

The point is this, £1 per hour pay rise is nearly £2000 more a year etc etc for standard 8 hour shift over 12 months etc. Its possible with the with tax allowance increase a good whack could still be taken in basic income tax.

No, I didn’t know if you were referring to the drivers or the company.

They will lose a chunk in tax and NI but they really want parity with their northern counterparts

 

[Cesarcollie]

No, I didn’t know if you were referring to the drivers or the company.

They will lose a chunk in tax and NI but they really want parity with their northern counterparts

Always got to be careful whether comparing eggs with eggs - eg paid breaks vs unpaid, not to mention the underlying earning capability of the depot/services in question....

 

[Megafuss]

Reading a recent report about this and still trying to get my head round ARRIVA Durham Country/Tees only paying breaks for established drivers and not new starters. Why would you want to create a two year system when you want to keep the new guys you employ?

Either give everyone paid breaks, nobody paid breaks or give them all partial paid break with an unpaid element depending on duty length.

 

[Andyh82]

Reading a recent report about this and still trying to get my head round ARRIVA Durham Country/Tees only paying breaks for established drivers and not new starters. Why would you want to create a two year system when you want to keep the new guys you employ?

Either give everyone paid breaks, nobody paid breaks or give them all partial paid break with an unpaid element depending on duty length.

Because new starters never knew what they never had, whereas old timers will kick off, particularly in a unionised industry, if they are moved to worse terms and conditions.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Why would you want to create a two year system when you want to keep the new guys you employ?

Do Arriva still make you pay the training costs back if you quit within two years?

 

[Mwanesh]

Because new starters never knew what they never had, whereas old timers will kick off, particularly in a unionised industry, if they are moved to worse terms and conditions.

Reminds me when i was new at First Northampton.We went for pay talks one of the senior guys said he did not care what happened to new starters .I just told him in a few years the place will be closed and he laughed at me .

 

[jkkne]

The difference between Northumbria and County Durham is somewhere between £1 and £2 per hour. For the drivers to overwhelmingly vote to lose a week's wages over it, industrial relations must be absolutely toxic.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. Arriva are refusing to refund tickets that can't be used, which is going down about as well as a vegan sausage roll.l

Even locally, Durham and Teesside are still cheaper to live in than Newcastle and Northumberland.

Still it’s great news for Stagecoach and Go Ahead who will reap rewards. In the long run drivers will only only end up peeing off the equally low paid bus users as anyone who can will switch back to the train or the car.