(11 Mar 2013, 2:54 pm)Daniel wroteLate on Friday afternoon (8 March) we received notification from the Regional Full Time Officer for the UNITE trade union that a ballot of their members at Go North East has resulted in a decision to take strike action on Friday 15th, Monday 18th March and Saturday 23rd March.
This follows a rejection of an offer to improve pay by 4.5 per cent.
More than 970 of our 1,645 drivers did not wish to support strike action, either by voting against a strike or by not voting at all.
I'm sure GNE will be able to operate a full service, even if Drivers have to Continue on for an extra Hour or so, although I think Bus Drivers are only allowed on the road for 3 hours at any time before having a break, although if there is heavy delays to services some may stretch to 4 in a bit hours. Plus the fact there is over 600 buses in fleet.
I say let those who are not bothered come to work as normal, basically the 970 drivers who chose not to vote. even if that means operating services e.g.
X1/M1/20/56/2A/2C/21/X66/43/44/45/46 etc at a reduced every 15-20 minute frequency.