Strike Action
Strike Action
(19 Mar 2024, 8:40 pm)Bazza Believe Blyth and Ashington drivers and engineers have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in their dispute over pay.
Likelydates will be early to mid April
(19 Mar 2024, 8:40 pm)Bazza Believe Blyth and Ashington drivers and engineers have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in their dispute over pay.
Likelydates will be early to mid April
(19 Mar 2024, 10:06 pm)mb134 Arriva Yorkshire voted the worst operation in the country, Arriva Durham County has been a mess for years, and now Arriva Northumbria overwhelmingly voting to strike.
It makes you wonder about the credentials of those in charge of Arriva North East & Yorkshire.
(19 Mar 2024, 10:06 pm)mb134 Arriva Yorkshire voted the worst operation in the country, Arriva Durham County has been a mess for years, and now Arriva Northumbria overwhelmingly voting to strike.
It makes you wonder about the credentials of those in charge of Arriva North East & Yorkshire.
(20 Mar 2024, 7:44 am)RobinHood Or maybe the Unite officer leading the negs with Arriva is pushing them out the door, exactly the same as he did with GNE, same person, same agenda. This is politics, and Arriva are the next pawn.
There is a mix of new and inexperienced Arriva internal Unite reps, being led by Mark Sanderson at Unite. He is not willing to negotiate, simply demanding a number and balloting immediately for IA when the business didn't offer it on day one.
Drivers are happy to go out, as Unite will continue to pay them, so very little to lose in hope of a better offer.
I know there will be variable opinions on this, many in favour, but Unite did this with GNE, demanding pay parity with NW, but not terms. A negotiation isn't a negotiation with Unite, and what did they end up with after it all?
(20 Mar 2024, 7:44 am)RobinHood Or maybe the Unite officer leading the negs with Arriva is pushing them out the door, exactly the same as he did with GNE, same person, same agenda. This is politics, and Arriva are the next pawn.
There is a mix of new and inexperienced Arriva internal Unite reps, being led by Mark Sanderson at Unite. He is not willing to negotiate, simply demanding a number and balloting immediately for IA when the business didn't offer it on day one.
Drivers are happy to go out, as Unite will continue to pay them, so very little to lose in hope of a better offer.
I know there will be variable opinions on this, many in favour, but Unite did this with GNE, demanding pay parity with NW, but not terms. A negotiation isn't a negotiation with Unite, and what did they end up with after it all?
(20 Mar 2024, 12:02 am)Storx I know who I want to blame for it because the problems of Arriva Yorkshire, Durham and North East seem to very similar to problems which are currently rotting away at GoNorthEast and also the same bloke who had a horrific strike in Manchester aswell.
Rot like that doesn't just go away over night.
(20 Mar 2024, 12:02 am)Storx I know who I want to blame for it because the problems of Arriva Yorkshire, Durham and North East seem to very similar to problems which are currently rotting away at GoNorthEast and also the same bloke who had a horrific strike in Manchester aswell.
Rot like that doesn't just go away over night.
(20 Mar 2024, 7:54 am)mb134 The starting pay at Arriva Northumbria, especially that for license holders (£11.19), is massively below what both GNE (£14.27) and Stagecoach (£14.30) are offering. That's not on the union, that's on incompetent management and not understanding the labour market they're hiring in.
You then have few experienced drivers joining, the new recruits you do have leaving quickly, and the rest of the drivers becoming increasingly annoyed at the abuse they're receiving because management aren't doing their jobs properly - so they leave too.
I don't think the behaviour of the Union has been great, but Arriva management and the decisions they've made for a few years has caused morale to constantly drop and abuse from passengers to constantly rise. I don't blame the drivers for wanting a break from that one bit, especially when the company is making no attempt to fix the underlying issues.
(20 Mar 2024, 7:54 am)mb134 The starting pay at Arriva Northumbria, especially that for license holders (£11.19), is massively below what both GNE (£14.27) and Stagecoach (£14.30) are offering. That's not on the union, that's on incompetent management and not understanding the labour market they're hiring in.
You then have few experienced drivers joining, the new recruits you do have leaving quickly, and the rest of the drivers becoming increasingly annoyed at the abuse they're receiving because management aren't doing their jobs properly - so they leave too.
I don't think the behaviour of the Union has been great, but Arriva management and the decisions they've made for a few years has caused morale to constantly drop and abuse from passengers to constantly rise. I don't blame the drivers for wanting a break from that one bit, especially when the company is making no attempt to fix the underlying issues.
(20 Mar 2024, 12:25 pm)V514DFT There's only a certain way of treating rot like that, and that is to remove it completely
(20 Mar 2024, 12:25 pm)V514DFT There's only a certain way of treating rot like that, and that is to remove it completely
(20 Mar 2024, 12:31 pm)Chris 1 Living wage goes up to £11.44 imminently so that £11.19 will surely have to? Even worse when it takes 2 year to get to top rate, rather than the 1 year quoted by both GNE & SCNE.
Or is the reality different and the information on the website is out of date?
(20 Mar 2024, 12:31 pm)Chris 1 Living wage goes up to £11.44 imminently so that £11.19 will surely have to? Even worse when it takes 2 year to get to top rate, rather than the 1 year quoted by both GNE & SCNE.
Or is the reality different and the information on the website is out of date?
It'll be interesting to see what happens when the takeover is completed. It's common after a takeover that the people at the top aren't part of the plans. Let's hope they look to bring in new ideas to take the company forward, it has been treading water in the time DB have been looking to sell.
Strike dates set for 7th to 13th and 21st to 27th April.
https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-event...his-spring
Be interesting to see if the:
X14 (Morpeth to Thropton), X15/X18 (North of Alnwick), X16, 434, 57A (Ashington to Cramlington) and 777 run during these strikes with emergency contracts like they did in Hexham in some form of way.
I believe they're all contracted services or subsidised - would give a level of service to most areas of some form, if they can get someone to actually run them.
(23 Mar 2024, 2:54 pm)Chris 1 Anyone know what the union are asking for? I’ve seen driver comments on Facebook alluding to 10%.
(23 Mar 2024, 2:54 pm)Chris 1 Anyone know what the union are asking for? I’ve seen driver comments on Facebook alluding to 10%.
(23 Mar 2024, 3:07 pm)Storx 10% is completely unreasonable. Inflation was 4% in December 2023 so anything above that is a good deal on paper.
Just because the union was a waste of space for years and accepting poor deals doesn't give them the right imo now to suddenly want double inflation deals.
(I'm not saying 4% is fair either)
(23 Mar 2024, 3:07 pm)Storx 10% is completely unreasonable. Inflation was 4% in December 2023 so anything above that is a good deal on paper.
Just because the union was a waste of space for years and accepting poor deals doesn't give them the right imo now to suddenly want double inflation deals.
(I'm not saying 4% is fair either)
(23 Mar 2024, 5:01 pm)Chris 1 I was a few Hobgoblins deep so entirely possible I misunderstood the post. 4% makes them the lowest paid out of the big 3 on current year deals.
(23 Mar 2024, 2:54 pm)Chris 1 Anyone know what the union are asking for? I’ve seen driver comments on Facebook alluding to 10%.
(23 Mar 2024, 2:54 pm)Chris 1 Anyone know what the union are asking for? I’ve seen driver comments on Facebook alluding to 10%.
(23 Mar 2024, 6:39 pm)mb134 Heard on the grapevine that it would be around 6% that the drivers would want (or around £15 per hour). Believe they also want the new starter rate to be significantly increased too - ultimately this being so poor is why they're in such a bad state staffing level wise.
(23 Mar 2024, 6:39 pm)mb134 Heard on the grapevine that it would be around 6% that the drivers would want (or around £15 per hour). Believe they also want the new starter rate to be significantly increased too - ultimately this being so poor is why they're in such a bad state staffing level wise.
(23 Mar 2024, 7:11 pm)Storx That seems totally fair to me if I had to be honest and pretty much should be where it is nowadays imo.
(23 Mar 2024, 7:11 pm)Storx That seems totally fair to me if I had to be honest and pretty much should be where it is nowadays imo.
(23 Mar 2024, 7:35 pm)mb134 Yeah, I think essentially they want to be paid similarly to Stagecoach and GNE. Stagecoach go up to £15.01 from May, so I don't think it's unreasonable.
In terms of the new starter rate, theres a ridiculously high amount of drivers starting then leaving before they get anywhere near the 2 year point where they'd earn top rate. The money simply isn't good enough to retain them, given the demands of the job and increasing antisocial behaviour.
(23 Mar 2024, 7:35 pm)mb134 Yeah, I think essentially they want to be paid similarly to Stagecoach and GNE. Stagecoach go up to £15.01 from May, so I don't think it's unreasonable.
In terms of the new starter rate, theres a ridiculously high amount of drivers starting then leaving before they get anywhere near the 2 year point where they'd earn top rate. The money simply isn't good enough to retain them, given the demands of the job and increasing antisocial behaviour.
