Go North East bus drivers announce two seven-day strikes in pay dispute

Go North East drivers are due to stage two seven-day strikes, beginning at the end of September. Credit: ITV Tyne Tees

Bus drivers have announced two seven-day strikes as part of a dispute over pay.

The Go North East drivers will walk out later this month.

The first seven-day strike is due to run from Saturday 30 September to Friday 6 October.

A second walk-out is planned from Saturday 14 October to Friday 20 October.

Depots that will be affected by any industrial action are Consett, Gateshead, Hexham, Percy Main (North Shields), Sunderland and Washington.

The union Unite accused Go North East of treating its workforce "appallingly".

General secretary Sharon Graham said: “Our members will have the full support of their union as they take to the picket line in their fight for a fair pay deal.”

Unite regional officer Dave Telford added: “Unite has a laser-like focus on the jobs, pay and conditions of its members – we will use every resource at our disposal to bring victory to the workers.”

Go North East said it had proposed ACAS-brokered talks with Unite to try and prevent the industrial action.

The company said it has made hundreds of drivers a pay offer to increase pay by £2,400 a year.

The proposal also included "some standardisation" of working practices across its six depots.

Go North East business director, Ben Maxfield, said, “The two most talked about inflation measures, CPI and RPI are currently running at 6.4% and 9.0% respectively.  Our offer of 9.11% beats both these figures and means our driver pay package will be among the very best in the region.

“Unite is claiming - without any attempt at justification - that drivers have been offered a below inflation pay increase.  The bottom line is that this simply isn’t true, which means that Unite would be striking for something they have already been offered.

“It’s not in our interests, or our passengers’ interests, to have a strike.  Unfortunately, it appears some elements within Unite are hell-bent on this course of action, but we believe most of our drivers will want to see successful ACAS negotiations.

“Of course, we value our drivers highly, and want to do the best for them.  We never take them for granted, and we will be entering talks – if Unite accepts them – in that spirit”.

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