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•CORMAC I don't believe their statements about rad ¡ation leaks! And I fear for the future!!
You fearfor the future!!? Listen, kid...my parents .. they were sparrows!! this undemocratic and conditions. service for the capital.
London's busworkers militancy.
July last year. strategy capable of, an effective fight. to an issue of national political priories.
ting forward are weak.
We can and should present the adequately-financed buses.
ment have.
Committee, busworkers strike IN A SERIES of branch ballots, London's busworkers have voted by overwhelming majority to strike from 24 March. Following a now-familiar pattern, Telford Beasley, head of London Buses Ltd (LBL) and formerly a director of United Biscuits, has already called promised High Court injunction against the TGWU. But his new-found concern for democracy is not matched by concern for busworkers jobs or On 4 March LBL gave the formal 90 days existing agreements on wages and conditions of service Hard won benefits such as staff status, sick and holiday pay, and severance money will now all have to be renegotiated. Moreover, this comes on top of plans to close at least five more garages, privatise more routes, convert others to one person minibuses driven by part-timers on lower wages Only last year management proposed a £40 a which they have shelved but not package will be the loss of 1500-2000 jobs and a further deterioration of an already poor public transport noted for The last time the bus section of the transport workers union took prolonged strike action was for seven weeks in 1958 when the Macmillan government attempted to force a three per cent norm for all wage settlements. But the scale of Tory attacks on public transport has already provoked a series of short stoppages at fleet garage level. This reached its highest point with an 82 per cent vote for a strike over the pay claim in That vote showed the anger of over 7000 busworkers. But years of weak leadership and a near refusal by the London Bus Committee (LBC) to campaign for a fight has told in this latest ballot: a low turnout. Busworkers are not confident that their leadership has either the resove for, or a The vote for strike action was organised by secret ballots following branch meetings. allowed the membership to hear management's proposals, the union's response and the views of fellow workers before casting a vote. The problem is that the LBC did not campaign for a strike vote or explain how we would fight. Even so the vote was 2:1 in favour. It gives a clear mandate for action. The task now is to convince the waverers.
This job is more difficult because miners' defeat. 'What chance have we?' is the refrain. The message is peddled loudest by those who are opposed to strike action. But there is genuine concern about how to fight. Bus workers have no illusions about the struggle we face.
At the centre of the dispute is the Tories' plan to scrap a subsidised public transport service and to hand over passenger traffic to the profit of private operators. Their decision to create London answerable to the Ministry of Transport, was part of that process. This government has made every dispute about the future of London's transport inIt is not enough, therefore, to say this is just another industrial dispute. But that is how the union leadership sees it. The demands they are putThey call for a slowingdown of the cuts, rather than total opposition. But busworkers should be bold enough not only to call a halt to these attacks but to openly declare our opposition to the Tory government's priorities.
case for an integrated public transport service. That means cheaper fares, and an end to OPO and the reintroduction of crew Busworkers should demand that government resources are reallocated for the benefit of people not profits. As the GLC cheap fares policy showed, such a campaign would be enermously popular. It would help the union win the allies it needs to turn back the management offensive.
Busworkers haven't chosen this fight, manageWe can enter it from a position of strength or aliow them to dictate the terms of our retreat. As a member of the London Busworkers Tony Isaacs, put it: "There are no guarantees that if we take management on we will win. But if we don't take them on — we can't win.'