https://iclfi.org/pubs/wh/252/buses
Driving buses was once a good public job. Now, working for one of the dozen or so private companies that run London buses is like working in a sweatshop. Six and seven days in a row, working all hours day and night, on buses that are hot in the summer and cold in the winter. A million tiers are designed to divide workers and make them chase every bit of overtime just to make ends meet. The companies that run the buses put as little as possible into wages, repairs and facilities, squeezing every bit they can until they decide to sell off to the next batch of overseers. And the public and the workforce get to ride burning buses through the wreck that is broken Britain.
As for Unite, it cannot challenge the most basic conditions in buses or anywhere else without confronting the entire rotting structure of British capitalism. This requires an entirely different union leadership. We received the following leaflet from the Committee for a Fighting Transport Union, which offers a first step in this direction.
We need jobs worth having, and the public needs buses worth riding. As London transport goes down like a Liz Truss mini-budget, what’s needed is obvious.
• Buses properly maintained
• Working heat and air conditioning
• A five-day workweek at an actual decent wage
Unite must organise a fight for these things. The union is willing to negotiate over the usual just-get-by pay rise but not willing to stand for what we actually need. Why? Because doing so would mean taking on the entire way the privatised system is run. If we want to make this a decent job again, we have to take matters into our own hands. This starts by demanding that Unite fight for what is truly needed.
Talk about the most burning work issues with your co-workers, get your union rep to fight for them and contact the Committee for a Fighting Transport Union: WhatsApp, text 07907 329 659, email fightingtransportunion@gmail.com.
