The Unite response
https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-event...rove-offer
Go North East talks break down after employer refuses to improve offer
Strike could be resolved for under £250,000 pounds but management refuse to move in negotiations
Bus strikes in the North East of England are set to continue after further talks with Go North East broke down this afternoon (Mon 6 Nov), Unite can reveal.
Unite officials suggested multiple ways of ending the strikes with a variety of financial packages for workers but each was met with refusal by Go North East management. Unite have calculated that the dispute could be resolved for approximately £238,000 - less than the pay for two Go North East directors, but the employer has refused to budge.
The difference between what the employer has previously offered and what Unite has asked for means that Go North East can end the strike with just 0.28 per cent of the annual profits of the Go Ahead bus group.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Go North East could end this dispute with the stroke of a pen with the equivalent of money they’d find down the back of a sofa. The parent company is awash with cash and yet they won’t stump up the funds it would cost them to end this dispute right now.
“Go North East should be ashamed of its own stubbornness and how it is treating our members and the communities that built its transport empire.”
Unite regional officer Dave Telford added: “Our members’ resolve has not waivered, and we will not back down. Unite put various proposals on the table today for the employer to accept and every time Go North East just refused to budge.
“There is only one party currently wishing to negotiate and that’s Unite. I urge Go North East to put its hands in its pocket and come up with the money that it will cost them to end this dispute – pocket change for a company making £85million in profits.”
RE: Go North East - 2023 Pay Deal and Industrial Action
Wistfully stuck in the 90s