Future Information (Non Footy)

For anybody likely to be interested/affected 2 one day strikes by Stagecoach drivers at Barnsley And Rawmarsh depots are pencilled in for Friday 18th and Monday 21st November with a further 2 in December to be ratified at a meeting this coming Sunday.

 

Why are they going on strike

 

Been negotiating a rise sinc March and after 3 offers in a worse position than after the 1st offer. The latest is to be financed by Stagecoach refusing to pay back pay which should be due from tha anniversary which is May/June time.

 

So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

 

don't worry...........if they sack the lot of you there will be plenty of Poles who will work for next to nowt.... and the company probably know it. The country is fooked !!

hope this helps

 

So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

Probably because stagecoach is owned by an old style ultra right wing tory who is carrying out the tories relentless class war ( for which he was knighted by the tories this year ) against the lower orders and hoping to cause a strike so he can then lock them out etc etc etc.
In 1998, Souter described British northerners (who make up a considerable proportion of his customers) as "the beer-drinking, chip-eating, council house-dwelling, old Labour-voting masses." Says it all really. Of course there will be a few on here that agrees with him.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

sorry its been a long time coming but t'owd man is almost correct, Stagecoach founder Brian Souter is probably the Scottish National Party's biggest supporter and benefactor, and he is the archetypal bully boy manager and for once thereev is right, plenty of Poles to do the job. If you add that Stagecoach is a company that this year the company have sacked one driver while he was recovoring from a potentially life threatening blood clot on his lung then in the last month surpassed that by sacking a woman driver who this year has had 2 serious stomach operations and then suffered a stroke.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

Yep, not far off was I, actually I was using poetic licence, I knew he was SNP, but used my discription of him as a profile of his commercial activities, old style tory. You can bet if the tories had a chance in Scotland he'd back them, so, he backs the next best thing.
Quote '' Brian Souter recognises trade unions and was a unionist himself while working on the buses in his student days. Yet, when his East Midlands Bus Company drivers were poised for an overtime ban, he threatened to fly in scab labour and they backed down''. (BBC News ) Quote '' In March 2007, he donated £500,000 to the Scottish National Party, citing an imbalance of funding within Scottish politics. One month later, in April 2007, the SNP's commitment (made at the party's 2006 conference) to re-regulate the bus network was dropped from the 2007 manifesto, although the SNP denies any direct link.'' ( crazy millionaire .com ). SNP/ Tory/owt that benefits mi bank balance.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

That's the stock answer in any dispute within the company "go on strike we've drivers all over the country to bring in" Again the same company that shortly after buying "Tracky" said "sorry lads not looking good for next years pay round" and then a few days later announced in all the papers that Souter and his sister, the other co-founder, were excercising a multi multi million pound share offer. and the local managing director Paul Lynch announced in a canteen get together/get to know everybody, meeting, that if the local buses said Paul Lynch BusCo. on the side nobody would get anything. after a couple of months he'd already made his mind up we didn't deserve Anything.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

If you read about some of the stunts him and his sister have pulled to further their interests it will astonish you, or not cos you already know about him. They crushed her ex hubby by running free buses on his routes and did the same with other opposition. Not nice people but reinforces my views about unfettered capitalism.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

Did they actually say on day x we will raise your hourly rate or did they say we will look at it and take it from there.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

As far as I can recall we went in with a claim to get us somewhere near parity with Arriva/First Bus. In order to go some way towards it the union said it would consider a multi year deal as being the best way forward. They came back with a 3 stage deal over I think 2/2&half years of something like 7p then 15p and perhaps 9p. That was rejected so they came back with a 3 year deal along the same sort of figures, rejected. The latest offer was £9 per hour from 1st Nov with no back pay, the next deal in 18 months, by which time if we had taken the previous offer we would have been on £9:35 per hour. All these figures, by the way areonly applicable after 2 years service. As I said earlier withdrawing back pay from early summer woulld part finance any deal plus little things like cutting paid walking time from the canteen to whereever in the bus station your bus is also cutting the time paid to do a first driver walk round check, a legal requirement, on a morning, all you could consider as going towards a self financing deal.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

Latest news just back from meeting strikes definite for Friday 18th, Monday 21st November and friday and Saturday 2nd and3rd December sorry for any inconvenience folks.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

No need to apologise, good luck. It's appalling how the bosses are allowed to treat their staff. Blair's just as much to blame for not repealling Thatchers anti union laws. What was it Heath said......'' The unacceptable face of capitalism '', fits your bosses to a tee.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

You're not a bus driver lol surely.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

No, retired steelworker, had my share of dealing with autocratic management that looks at their workforce as a necessary evil to be used and abused. I'm very envious of anybody that has worked for a good boss all their lives.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

got to say in all my time working, some firms bigger than stagecoach some smaller even a short spell self employed stagecoach are far far away the worst employer i've ever worked for.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

I first read about Souter and his lovely sister in a news paper report quite a few years ago,well before they bought the trackies, and it was obvious then what a pair tw4ts they were, and the more I read about them the more disgusted I become at the way they carry on.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

Then look for another job... To be fair I think the wages your after for the job that you do is extremely generous given first recently advertised a starting rate of seven twenty five an hour.

Bear in mind a lot of nurses don't get much more that ten pound an hour normal rate.

 

Re: So why are stage coach barnsley refusing to pay back pay?

When Tracky was sold, right up to the very last minute, arriva were the buyers but I believe Stagecoach offered an extra quarter million and th edeal was done. At the time we were all chuffed but one or two workmates, who were really up on the bus industry warned us about Stagecoach and everything they said has come true ten fold. The only consolation for the travelling public of south and west yorkshire is that in no way will they be around as long as tracky was. They might not have been the best company in the world but they were local and everything didn't come down to balance sheets and they did go some way to caring for their customers and staff, two groups of people that stagecoach don't give a stuff about.