Well it’s going to be an interesting day on Wednesday, with all NZ Bus services being suspended from 4am onwards due to some complicated situation that sounds like a strike, but apparently isn’t.
The drivers’ employer is threatening to lock bus drivers out over the stoppage action. NZ Bus yesterday confirmed that if its 900 drivers and cleaners take industrial action from 4am on Wednesday it will suspend all its Auckland services.
These account for about 70 per cent of Auckland’s buses, carrying about 80,000 passengers a day.
The companies affected are Metrolink, North Star, Go West, Waka Pacific, Link and City Circuit.
I’m not going to take sides on the issue, because I simply don’t know what the details are. It means I’ll be walking to work on Wednesday – fun fun!
Some replacement services are being offered – although I would expect them to be extremely busy!
All trains, ferries and buses operated by other companies (Ritiches, Howick & Eastern, Birkenhead etc.) will still operate.
Update: The bus strike/lockout has been cancelled! Services will run as usual tomorrow. It certainly sounds like it was more of a lockout than a strike, as the drivers were willing to work, but to “the letter of their contracts”, which would have led to delays. I must say I find it quite amazing that NZ Bus were going to cancel all their services on the grounds of nothing more than the driver working in accordance with the law and their contracts. Pretty odd really.
Update 2: For news on the October 8th lockout click here and here.
Processing...
Car for me on Wednesday…
Catch the train Jezza, come on I dare ya! (Along with the other half of Auckland that is)… 😉
The article on stuff this morning seemed to suggest that the drivers were going to work to rule (i.e. the letter of their contract and nothing more), NZ Bus look like a pack of w*nkers if this is the case and they are enforcing a lock out.. Either way, sucks to be in Auckland on Wednesday if you need the buses
http://aucklandbusstories.blogspot.com/2009/09/auckland-commuters-face-bus-strike.html
I agree with you this situation is very confusing. This “strike” is really in the gray area between strike and lockout.
I was going to get my bike fixed on the weekend as I’m starting to look like the bicycle riders on the Orakei images you provided, I wish I had now…
Yeah I should get around to getting a new bike actually. It would be quite a nice ride into town from where I am moving to – could go around Westhaven way.
It is a lockout by the NZ Bus managers, not a strike! Bus drivers planned to ‘work to rule’ on some minor matters (updating expected arrivals PIDs, meal breaks, etc) in an effort to pressure NZ Bus to cough up a decent pay rise.
NZ Bus has responded by threatening to lockout any drivers who work to rule. That means NZ Bus won’t let the drivers drive their buses. Blame attaches to NZ Bus managers entirely – if they wish to frustrate commuters by using them as pawns, we can expect more stutters in patronage growth.
Hopefully this does not herald a return to the dark days of the 1980s, when bus disputes nuked bus patronage. But then I believe 1980s Labour govt finance minister David Caygill is on the Board of Directors of NZ Bus…
Spare a kind word for any drivers ya see on Wednesday 😉
You make a good point bob, it does sound very much like a lock-out.
This is why the bus operation should be in the hands of ARTA!
Even though it is a bit inconvenient, I travel to Otara from Waiheke, I support the drivers, they are on low wages and have to put up with considerable stress with the other drivers on the road who often seem to ignore all road rules. Anyway, I will have a chance to ride my motor bike ( a veteran Triumph) to work, and I will be able to leave home later and arrive home earlier, just costs me more and the traffic won’t be good.
The lock out is actually open-ended so it may not be over by Thursday. The May 2005 Stagecoach strike lasted a week: http://fullerswatch.blogspot.com/2005/06/stagecoach-bus-drivers-strike.html
I agree that bus drivers are paid low wages for the kind of work they do but not doing your job is not a solution. In all this mess, the customer (daily commuter, common man) has been shorchanged and ignored.
9.9% over 3 years. I think its a generous offer I know so many people in this time of RECESSION that have been told no pay rise, bonus and many who have lost their jobs. Its really not bad pay for unskilled labour. Go the Bus company!
Bob check your facts David Caygill is not a board member of NZ Bus and never has been
but not doing your job is not a solution.
They ARE doing their job. NZ Bus is locking them out.
looks like have call in sick
The Bus company is in the right here, infact if I was them i’d give the employees 1 week to either quit the Union or find another job. Most other industries people have pay frezzes or have reduced hours. Why are these people different, I’m sure in the economic environment as it is the bus company won’t have any trouble finding new staff who won’t join the union, and accept the pay on offer.
I think the bus drivers need to wake up to reality, because quite frankly alot of the buses I’ve been on have crap service as it is. Of course one or two exceptions, but it does deter me from traveling on them as oftern as I should.
Bus strike averted: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10595994
Joshua telling people they have to quit the Union or be fired is against a couple of really good laws…
A lot of naiveity on this thread… The bus drivers have said they would show up to work and work to the letter of their contract and have been told if they plan to do that they will be locked out… Surely if working to one’s contract is considered a threat that must mean they are currently doing work they that is not in their contract and as such isn’t reflected in their pay packets…
The Bus Company doesn’t get a dispensation for underpaying people just because a recession has rolled around…
Agreed Jezza. It makes one wonder how different working to their contract is to what is usually expected of them.
Quite right Fi – David Caygill is in fact on the Board of Directors of Infratil, the NZ based utilities investing company that wholly owns NZ Bus. So he does have a significant say in how NZ Bus treats their drivers, and whether he lets NZ Bus managers lockout their drivers for working to rule.
I’m glad Jezza and Jarbury explained NZ employment law to Joshua, as it is hard to grasp why someone thinks NZ Bus should be able to force their drivers to quit the union – which is completely illegal. NZ thankfully has freedom to belong to a union, along with freedom of speech, political views, religion, etc.
Fi, while a 9.9% pay rise sounds impressive, its over 3 years, so it’s only 3.3% a year, and on the low pay rates of bus drivers ($14-16 p/hour) it is just under 60c an hour more. That hardly covers the large food price rises we are experiencing, and it locks in such low pay rises for 3 years, even if inflation rises by much more (if the recession eases, or government stimulates the economy).
And Joshua, NZ Bus have had trouble getting and retaining drivers for years. Partly due to low pay, partly because of bad supervisors, partly the split shifts (4 hours unpaid downtime between morning and afternoon shifts to make an 8 hour day), and partly the attacks drivers suffer (I knew a lovely woman driver who had her jaw broken by thieves who took her cashbox on nightshift).
Thank goodness NZ Bus seem to have had a rethink…
Well if that the case mabe they should scrap the pay rise and hire security instead. Im sorry to disagree but I understand the law and understand the right to be apart of the union. I dont understand why employees should have a run of the good times yet not be affected by the bad times. eg. the company suffers the losses however has to stump up the gains to the union members. This is what has caused a huge loss of our industry moving overseas to china, thailand etc. I’m afraid from a public transport perspective it could result in fewer and less attractive bus travel options as the bus companies try to save money in other areas of the buisness. The Unions have strained the development of the manufacturing industry in New Zealand to the point where the majority of our product now comes out of China, I can only hope they don’t start straining our public transport companies.
However it is also part of their job to deal with disgrantled passangers, and in the end doesn’t excuse them of treatment of other passenger (or the lack of treatment). A part of their job should be to be as pleasent and helpful as possible, it’s not good when you feel unwelcomed boarding a bus. So maybe they should audit the bus drivers and reward the good drivers for constantly good service rather than give everyone the pay rise.
Bob everyone is quite entitled to their own opinion no problem with that but when your information is just WRONG it makes me wonder what else you have made mistakes with David Caygill IS NOT on the Infratil Board he resigned from this position in 2007 quite some time ago now given its now 2009. FYI many other sectors of the NZ economy have split shifts and $14-16 an hour for unskilled labour doesnt seem 2 bad to me or my friends that are unemployed but dont live in Wgtn or Auck so cant work for NZ Bus. Get your information right! before you start correcting others.
Adding to what Fi has indicated $14-16 an hour is pretty damn good, in this time of a recession a know of skilled labour who accept less than that. So immagine the quality of staff that would be willing to take up the job. I think the bus company is been very generous.
Bus drivers should be getting paid better. They have to put up with crazy car drivers, rude passengers . They are also responsible for the safety of their passengers. My father was a bus driver when it was ran by the ARA and they were treated well. See what privatisation does. Keeps the workers down.
The bus company is not being generous and I think if you were a bus driver with a family to support, you would want a decent income.
Why are they so special compared to the Average worker?
who do you call the average worker
We have have got into the mentality that unions are bad. This has been done by big corporate owners/bosses, right wing governments. I think we should all read our history books and see how much unions have done for workers in the last one hundred years. Lets highlight what unions have done: Gave us the 40 hour working week, fought for decent wages, fought for decent holidays, fought for decent working conditions. The list is immense. I think today, we forget what it was like working 50 to 60 years ago. If everything that unions have done for the common working man was taken away, then we would appreciate the hard work unionists have done over the last 100 and more years to make things fairer.
The difference between what the union is asking for and what NZ Bus are offering is small. I am sure it will be sorted out. What annoys me is NZ Bus suspending all services due to very minor industrial action. Heck, can work to rule even be classified as industrial action?
I’m pretty convined the bus company did what they had to do to avoid it spinning bad in the media… This wat it is jsut a pox on both their houses…
Good to see Mike Lee cut NZ Buses allowance, that’s $160,000 a day to help pay for Joyce’s Holiday Highway…
I think it’s turned out worse for NZ Bus though. Nobody is reporting it as a strike, everyone’s jumping up and down about them over-reacting. A bit of a PR disaster for them surely.
We got in our mind that unions are bad because they have forced our manufacturing buisnesses overseas reducing the availibility of jobs instead of protecting their members. Unions are why many of our products are made overseas. They have destroyed so many buisnesses and then complain when other NZ buisnesses employ overseas workers rather than NZers, and cant get through their thick skulls why they cant make profits with NZ labour.
Im sorry but I don’t like Unions as they have ruined NZ products and effectively increased the NZ unemployment rate. But hey they think of the now not the future of their members. And the Average Worker is the worker on the spade in a construction site, moving your funiture when you move, the people who mow your lawns and do your gardens, pick-up your rubish, serve you at the counter in the supermarket. Shall I continue?
Oh and in my industry we have employees complaining because the law wont let them work extra hours because of the unions 50 – 60 years ago, I work in an industry where employees are forced to use up their holidays even though they dont want to because of the Unions 50 – 60 years ago. So sure they have done good but especialy now they are taken things to far.
However I believe the NZ Bus has done the wrong thing, they should of waited for the Union Members to go on a full out strike then hire people who want to work to take their place.
I don’t care whos right or wrong, i just want me bloody buses back!! hows a 19yr old suppose to earn his keep when he cant get to work. walkings not a option im to lazy man.