'Chaotic' services behind three-city bus strike, says union calling for standardisation

Sunday, 21 October 2018

Bus drivers in Auckland and across the country have called for industry-wide standards as they plan to walk off the job.

Commuters in Auckland, Waikato and Wellington will be left stranded as bus drivers walk off the job this week.

The wheels will stop turning in Auckland and Waikato on Tuesday when hundreds of drivers go out on strike. Wellington drivers will strike on Thursday.

FIRST Union divisional secretary Jared Abbott said bus services across the country were in 'chaos', and drivers had had enough of the poor pay and work conditions.

He said bus drivers were not treated as people, and called for industry-wide standards, which included a Fair Pay Agreement.

Waikato Go Bus drivers will go on strike on Tuesday.

* Go Bus and Waikato bus drivers heading for mediation after strike

* Strike over low pay and bad conditions

* Bus strike cancels morning trips in south Auckland**

'It's safe to say it's absolute chaos everywhere, we need to be listened to this time.

'Do we really want exhausted people operating heavy machinery with lives on board, or do we want them to be afforded the dignity that most other New Zealanders have?'

Some Wellington bus drivers are going on an 'indefinite strike', according to Tramways Union.

The current situation was an 'atrocity', he said.

Drivers currently 'work 12 hours for eight hours' pay' because of split shifts, he said, and are also expected to drive unsupervised children on school bus routes.

Rolling strikes have been ongoing for 12 months, and Abbott said it was unlikely this round of strike action would bring an end to the negotiations.

The union planned to continue with industrial action after this week's strike. 'If we do nothing, things won't change,' Abbott said.

The union wanted to see government, local councils and Auckland Transport step in.

'It's time [they] rolled their sleeves up and got this mess sorted out,' he said.

AUCKLAND

Commuters in south and West Auckland will be worst hit by the strike as union members employed as bus drivers by Pavlovich and Ritchies Murphy down tools.

The Auckland strike will run for 24 hours, from 4am Tuesday until 4am Wednesday.

School buses, trains and ferries will run as normal.

AT spokesman James Ireland said around 350 bus services would be affected.

In West Auckland, 245 services on the following routes will be affected: 66; 111; 112; 114; 131; 132; 133; 134; 138; 141; 142; 143; 146; 152; 154.

Around 100 South Auckland services on these routes will be affected: 33; 362; 365; 368; 371; 372; 373; 376; 377; 378.

Passengers should use the AT Mobile app to plan an alternative journey.

WAIKATO

The Waikato strikes will be from 5am to 9am on Tuesday.

Bus drivers in Waikato who will strike are employed by Go Bus.

Abbott said Waikato drivers were most concerned with safety with drivers who had reported buses with duct-taped steering columns, broken radios and broken air-conditioners.

WELLINGTON

In Wellington, bus drivers had planned to begin what the union called an indefinite strike on Tuesday, but the action was deferred until Thursday.

Union secretary Kevin O'Sullivan said it was deferred due to a 'legal loophole' which had since been addressed. It would go ahead on October 25, starting at 2am

Meanwhile, a planned bus driver strike set down for Monday at noon will go ahead as scheduled.