Bus drivers working for Stagecoach at the Bow bus garage were out on strike for the 6th day on Friday, Shabbir Lakha reports from the picket line

Bus drivers at the Bow bus garage were out on the picket line for the 6th time on Friday. The strike is challenging deteriorating working conditions for bus drivers. A combination of back-to-back shift scheduling, shorter breaks, removal of walking time allowances from the bus stand to the depot during breaks and a lack of toilet facilities along the route is seriously affecting the welfare of drivers. In such conditions, fatigue is a very serious concern for drivers, and therefore an issue of safety of passengers and other road users but isn’t being taken seriously by the company.

Their contempt for the workers was laid bare in a story one of the strikers told me of a female bus driver who had to stop on her route to look for and then use a bathroom (there are no provisions so this means hoping a cafe or pub is open and will let the drivers use their facilities) and on return to the bus was told off by her manager who said it should have only taken her 4 minutes.

As one striker David told me:

“Imagine driving for nine and a half hours a day, concentrating on the road and dealing with the public. If we don’t have adequate rest, this is how fatigue starts.

“I’ve been working here for three years, I’ve seen drivers that don’t stay for more than 6 months after they see how bad the scheduling is.

“It’s not right to be treating drivers as machines – we’re not cyborgs, we’re human beings, and we have every right to have a decent rest pattern.”

But apparently that’s exactly the mentality of Stagecoach management. Another striker told me when he raised some of these concerns, he was told London would have driverless buses within ten years and he’ll be jobless then so he should be happy with what he’s got.

With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder they have little regard for working conditions or passenger safety. The strikers said that in order to give the workers fair schedules and rest times, they would have to employ more bus drivers and this is what they absolutely do not want to do.

And it’s why since the dispute began, management has refused to engage in meaningful negotiations, with the exception of proposing one improvement to the contracts of newer drivers who are currently even worse off than longer standing drivers.

Bosses bring in scabs

Instead, Stagecoach brought in bus drivers from the north of England to break the strike and keep the buses running, reportedly paid £50 extra.

But there was also some dissatisfaction among the strikers with their union, Unite. ‘Bus drivers across London are facing similar conditions, we should be organising together, but Unite is not very organised’. When Lea Interchange bus drivers with the same company were on strike last month over pay at the same time as the Bow bus workers nearby, the union reportedly blocked any joint action. As one of the strikers argued, apart from anything else, joint action and organising is the only way to minimise the companies’ ability to break the strikes with scabs.

Additionally, ‘last year they negotiated a two-year pay deal so now prices are going up but we can’t make a pay claim until next April’.

But despite all this, the strikers were in good spirits. They had a strong picket line with a barbecue going and more and more striking drivers joining throughout the day. They were visited by Green Party and Aspire candidates in the upcoming local elections who came to pledge their support. And they were met with regular beeps from vehicles passing by – including bus drivers on routes not serviced by Bow Bus Garage – and with fists up from residents walking past.

As one of the strikers told me, “We know we have to fight now and keep going or it will only get worse”. The Bow bus drivers will next be out on strike on 15 May, please get down and show your support.