(13 Oct 2022, 6:33 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Here's a controversial opinion, maybe they already have a fair wage?

They're already getting paid 20% more an hour than supermarket workers and delivery drivers, and they seem to manage fine without whinging. Plus, they do more than sit around all day!

(I may just be trying to cause drama...)

I note the small print, but even you must admit that we'd be a poorer country, without the history of fighting for the rights that we enjoy today.

It's incredible that whenever a group of workers want to fight to better themselves, that people instantly compare them to supermarket workers, care workers, nurses or whoever else. Same way as the media always go back to train driver pay, when talking about RMT workers (including cleaners, porters, etc) on strike. 

We really need to get out of this mindset that it's a race to the bottom and that we must always compare ourselves with shitty wages in other sectors.

(14 Oct 2022, 4:54 am)Starscream wrote To quote the political class, if they were to broaden their minds and consider other people's lives and the history of work in general, I put it to the floor that Sunderland bus drivers have never has it so good, all things considered, in terms of wage, conditions, prospects and job security. On the latter, even Jesmond drivers have a more legitimate right to strike this week, and nobody seriously believes they're doing so out of a realistic prospect of large numbers of forced redundancies coming down the line.

I can't tell whether you're being serious or you're just incredibly naive. Everything that workers have in this country are a hard-fought victory of Trade Unions. If it wasn't for Unions, our kids would still be getting sent down the pit or up a chimney and people would still be regularly end up dead on the job. No employer does things for the good of workers rights. They do things because they've been forced to, after decades and decade of campaigning.

It's incredible to suggest that 'bus drivers have never had it so good'. You're talking about a headline hourly rate, but not considering that most other industries would pay shift allowance (of at least 20%) for the kind of unsociable shifts that drivers are expected to work, compensating for their lack of work/life balance. You're also ignoring the responsibility of the job, ensuring the safe carriage of up to 80 passengers at a time, the lack of flexibility to take time off, the lack of sanitary facilities in their workplace, physical and verbal assaults whilst working alone, the list goes on. That's why I always find it rich people suggesting they'd do the job for X, but then don't. 

It's also worth remembering that as key workers, bus drivers were expected to work as normal (with no enhancement) throughout COVID, ensuring that that other key workers could continue to travel to their place of work. Or did we seriously think that clapping on our doorsteps on a weekly basis was enough? 

(14 Oct 2022, 3:09 pm)Driver9*** wrote So if bus driving is so good then, why are so many drivers leaving?

Exactly. Voting with their feet, as they say.