I'm a bus driver. An extra 1p an hour is insulting – it's Victorian to be begging for wages
This bus driver wishes to remain anonymous but is represented by Unite. As an Arriva North West bus driver, I […]
By i Team
Updated July 3, 2020 4:00 pm
Arriva North West bus drivers say their counterparts in Europe earn more than them (Arriva press)
This bus driver wishes to remain anonymous but is represented by Unite.
As an Arriva North West bus driver, I am out in all weathers delivering passengers safely to their destinations. I am happy with my job which I have been doing for a number of years.
But what I am not happy about is working for an employer which does not seem to care about its staff, where the workforce is not valued and where we appear to be just cogs generating shareholder profits.
The reason we are striking up to Christmas is over pay, but brewing away in the background there are a number of smaller- but just as important- issues for my colleagues and I that have slowly ground us down.
Striking bus drivers deride 1p extra pay offer as 'cynical' and 'insulting'
There is a strong feeling the German transport giant Deutsche Bahn AG, which has huge financial resources and owns Arriva North West, does not care about its bus staff.
We feel as though we were purchased by mistake and that we are being left to run ourselves down. This is not good, ultimately, for the passengers across the north west.
'Struggling'
The latest offer of one penny extra an hour to the hourly rate is just insulting, given that inflation hit three per cent in October. Our members are struggling to pay their household bills.
This is clearly alarming as many of us see this as our career and have built up close friendships within the 11 depots. We have structured our home lives around the shift patterns we are expected to work.
"It is about pay, but that has been the kindling that has sparked this fire which is about our employer showing no respect for its staff. It is time for the hardline Arriva bosses to come to the table and negotiate constructively."
We have had the allotted time we get to complete our journeys slowly chipped away in cost-saving exercises over the last few years, which puts extra stress onto an already extremely stressful job.
We have made written agreements with regards to delay time payments, this is money for finishing your shift late if stuck in traffic that we are often forced to beg our supervisors for (often as little as £3). This is demeaning for professional drivers.
Bus drivers in Holland earn more
Arriva also owns buses in Holland where the drivers earn about £400 a month more than us and they also don't have to do compulsory week working. This disparity is glaring.
I really do not think we would have come this far without all these factors in play and we do appreciate that nine new strike days in December will cause inconvenience to the travelling public.
We just want to be treated with dignity and not be made to feel like we should beg for our wages, as in Victorian times.