(19 Mar 2024, 8:40 pm)Bazza wrote 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 wrote 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 wrote 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 wrote 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 wrote 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 wrote 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 wrote 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?

(23 Mar 2024, 2:54 pm)Chris 1 wrote 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 wrote 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 wrote 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 wrote 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 wrote 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 wrote 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 wrote 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, 8:43 pm)RobinHood wrote The pay rate is the headline, but it is far from the ultimate benchmark.

The consideration of paid breaks (still exist for large proportion of drivers in Durham County for example), plus the black and white rules around paid time (some operators only pay actual platform time, others pay shift time etc).

Only when you build that picture up, do you truly understand the value of the role.

For example, a lower rate paid right through can actually work out better value than a high rate, only paid when you are physically sat in the cab. Both duties might be 10 hours, with 8.5. hours driving time. Driver on £13.50 paid through gets £135. Driver on £15 only paid for platform time gets £127.50. Exactly the same length of time spent essentially at work. Don't be seduced by the rate.

That doesn't for one minute suggest that 4% is or isn't a fair deal, but a simple comparison of pay rates is not a barometer.

(23 Mar 2024, 8:43 pm)RobinHood wrote The pay rate is the headline, but it is far from the ultimate benchmark.

The consideration of paid breaks (still exist for large proportion of drivers in Durham County for example), plus the black and white rules around paid time (some operators only pay actual platform time, others pay shift time etc).

Only when you build that picture up, do you truly understand the value of the role.

For example, a lower rate paid right through can actually work out better value than a high rate, only paid when you are physically sat in the cab. Both duties might be 10 hours, with 8.5. hours driving time. Driver on £13.50 paid through gets £135. Driver on £15 only paid for platform time gets £127.50. Exactly the same length of time spent essentially at work. Don't be seduced by the rate.

That doesn't for one minute suggest that 4% is or isn't a fair deal, but a simple comparison of pay rates is not a barometer.

(23 Mar 2024, 8:50 pm)Storx wrote Yeah valid points, must admit I thought paid driver breaks were long gone across the whole of Arriva North East, if I had to be honest. So wasn't really something I thought about.

(20 Mar 2024, 1:35 pm)mb134 wrote Apologies, it's £11.46 after training at the moment (£11.19 during training, which you'd assume would legally have to increase). It's around a £5.5k difference over the course of a year compared to GNE and Stagecoach - why would anyone with a licence join Arriva?

(23 Mar 2024, 3:07 pm)Storx wrote 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, 8:43 pm)RobinHood wrote The pay rate is the headline, but it is far from the ultimate benchmark.

The consideration of paid breaks (still exist for large proportion of drivers in Durham County for example), plus the black and white rules around paid time (some operators only pay actual platform time, others pay shift time etc).

Only when you build that picture up, do you truly understand the value of the role.

For example, a lower rate paid right through can actually work out better value than a high rate, only paid when you are physically sat in the cab. Both duties might be 10 hours, with 8.5. hours driving time. Driver on £13.50 paid through gets £135. Driver on £15 only paid for platform time gets £127.50. Exactly the same length of time spent essentially at work. Don't be seduced by the rate.

That doesn't for one minute suggest that 4% is or isn't a fair deal, but a simple comparison of pay rates is not a barometer.

(02 Apr 2024, 2:28 pm)Chris 1 wrote Suspended whilst Unite take a revised offer back to their members, as per the Arriva North East facebook page.

(02 Apr 2024, 8:00 pm)Storx wrote Guessing it must be a reletively positive offer, which might be accepted, since they've suspended the strike action.

(02 Apr 2024, 8:14 pm)Adrian wrote In my experience on the TU side, you'd only suspend strike action if you feel it's an offer that you could recommend to your members.

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