I first noticed this yesterday when looking on the MAXX site for something but the NZ Herald today has a bit more information.
Auckland commuters could be in for trying times as bus drivers respond to a pay offer that has failed to win approval from union negotiators.
NZ Bus is urging passengers to make alternative travel arrangements between 9am and 2.30pm on Thursday, when all its Auckland buses, apart from those on the Inner Link route, will be off the road. More than 800 drivers are stopping work to vote on the offer.
According to a notice to the drivers of a paid stop-work meeting at Alexandra Park Raceway, issued by the Tramways Union and the First Union, eight days of pay talks with the company have ended without agreement for a new employment deal.
To completely kill all PT to large parts of Auckland for 5.5 hours is going to be pretty disruptive for a lot of people. Even if the two parties can come to an agreement on Thursday I am also amazed at the amount of time that is allocated for this meeting. I fully understand that drivers have to get their buses back to their depots etc. but why do they all have to go to Alexandra Park. Is it not possible in this day and age to set up some video links at the depots to reduce the amount of time that buses need to be off the road. Another big concern I have is why there is simply no plan to perhaps have some other bus companies at least run a skeleton service, even if it was just at a lower frequency on key routes.
I really really hope that the two parties can sort out their differences as we don’t want to be heading for a repeat of the October 2009 industrial action between NZ Bus and its drivers. Back then it really dented the image of public transport which saw patronage drop quite a bit and it took about 6 months to recover just to back to where it was. Since that time patronage has increased by about 20% which means that if it were to happen again then a lot more people will be affected.
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Why can they not do what our company does and go to each depot and have a number of meetings over a week making sure that they then get the majority of union members.
Why cant they do what my union does and have online voting…. It’s bloody 2012, get with the times….
Well it could be worse, it could be a multi-day meeting. It is just a sign of a system that does not adapt to the changing reality of the present. The funny thing is that the unions were vital in the past. The problem is that they were so successful over the past century that they now seem to be obsolete for the most part. Workers rights are stronger than they have ever been and well protected in law from employers exploitation.
really? Where do you live? I want to live there.
Erm, the whole point of a stop work meeting is to stop work! Causing a disruption to the business is the plan.
Yes but when that business is providing a public service that people need to be able to rely on then it isn’t good enough. As I said, why couldn’t there be some contingency to use buses and drivers from other companies to at least provide a basic level of service as they would most likely have spare buses due to it being off peak. I guess it also highlights the problem of having one bus company with so much market share in such large areas of the city.
“why couldn’t there be some contingency to use buses and drivers from other companies”
Because the other drivers would be labeled “scabs” and subject to intimidation and threats?
Dead right about the filthy scabs. Look what trouble management caused at Ports of Auckland recently when they brought in scabs to steal Union jobs.
And while your busy trying to be a bully by calling people names, what do you say to the little old lady waiting at a bus stop so she can go to a doctors appointment?
I would say that my boss doesn’t pay me enough. It’s the only powewr for low skilled workers like bus drivers.
I think the most effective way the union members can go about industrial action is by carrying out the stop work meetings etc, as is their legal right, but also they need to allow contract labour to keep the business operating. This still costs the business extra money but keeps the users on side and stops it degenerating into a awful mess like the Ports debacle. The left vs right radical argument has had it’s day. Calling people ‘scabs’ doesn’t do anything to endear yourself to the general public.
Can this really be compared to the Ports contractors? If NZ Bus was the one who contracted in other bus companies (their competitors, mind), then yes.
But it’d be Auckland Transport, not the bus drivers’ employer involved in pay negotiations, who would be contracting other bus companies to provide a skeleton service between the peak periods while NZ Bus buses are off the road.
NZ Bus, the employer in the dispute in this case, would still feel the pinch as they would not be operating, therefore not receiving farebox revenue nor subsidy payments for buses that don’t run due to stopwork meetings and/or industrial action.
I support bus drivers attending a stopwork meeting, as it is their right. If management don’t want this to happen, they need to make an acceptable offer to the Union.
We, the public transport users, should be turning our attention to the management. The bus drivers are very hard workers, don’t rake in the money, and provide essential parts of the service, safety, customer service etc. Meanwhile management receive millions of dollars of public subsidies. I think we should be asking why is management willing to allow this public disruption occur, not the drivers.
Totally agree. The only problem here is that the biggest thing the public can do is to vote with their wallet. With only one provider dominating the market, there is not much PT users can do to change things.
I think being a bus driver in Auckland would be a horrible job. I also think that it is to the benefit of bus passengers and the wider public transport system if bus drivers are being paid a decent wage, working reasonable hours and having regular breaks. If they are working in decent conditions it is more likely that bus drivers will drive safely and be polite and helpful to customers. Before criticizing the bus union, it might be good to know exactly what NZ Bus is offering them.
I also really question the assertion that workers right are better now than at any time in the last century. Actually, workers rights have been progressively rolled back since the early 1990s in NZ when the government passed laws to weaken the unions. Our unions are far weaker now than, for example, the Australian unions. This is one of the reasons why we have much lower wages on average than Australians.
One of the greatest benefits of this new bus network plan should be a big increase in efficiency and a move toward all day service, rather than a really peaky schedule. That should mean more normal shifts for drivers, and overall more paying customers travelling on the same amount of bus services. With any luck that will allow us to pay drivers more, yet reduce council subsidy and improve operator profits at the same time.
Ok, this is way of topic, but oh well. Granted, on average, union workers have higher wages than equivalent non-union workers. However, I think unions have almost nothing to do with kiwis having lower wages that aussies. Australia is a far wealthier nation with far less foriegn debt than we have. They have been saving/investing (via superannuation) for 20 years. That is money being invested into their economy, buying assets instead of selling them. More money going around internally = higher wages.
Low skill labour has been on the way out for decades. Even specialist skills can be made obsolete overnight. Within a decade or two, all bus/taxi drivers will be replaced by self driving vehicles. It is probably inevitable. No amount of striking or protests or negotiatons will stop that.
Regarding video conferencing, it’s expensive enough having a permanent installation never mind trying to get one installed for ad hoc use once every few years. Just not worth the money.
Plus, as others have pointed out, a stop work meeting is deliberately disruptive. Unfortunately this means that the public get inconvenienced, but at least they’re doing it outside the daily peak.
Once again we see the deleterious effect that the current government are having on industrial relations. Another company is setting up for a fight with workers. NZ Bus can hardly claim they’re not making enough money to support a pay increase for the workers, what with the ever-increasing subsidies they’re raking in and the significant increase in patronage that is still occurring.
It is important to note that this is not actually a case of industrial action. It is a paid union meeting, agreed to by the employer and union in order to vote on the offer. Quite why it takes so long, and why they haven’t been able to work out a skeleton service I don’t know.
In the end however, the right to bargain collectively is important in a democratic society, and a part of that is workers being able to get together and work out how they can advance their case. It is hard to replicate this through video-conferencing and the like.
The paid stop work meeting on Thursday is part of the collective bargaining process where the union executive have an obligation to provide their members an opportunity to be appraised of the status of negotiations and make decisions about the offer on the table. The timing is to allow all members the opportunity to hear the same message from the union executive at the same time and vote on matters that are important to their terms and conditions. The scheduling of this meeting during offpeak and during the school holidays is to minimise disruption to customers where possible.
We are obligated under the terms of the BPA, CEA and the ERA as an employer and we will do nothing other than meet these comittments. Negotiations have been conducted in three sessions totaling eight days and whilst the natural tension points exist as they do with all collective negotiations , dialogue has been constructive. The offer on the table of 2.3% increase in November this year with a further similar increase in November 2013 places NZ Bus drivers at the forefront of hourly rates in Auckland. (Note: Drivers in AKL also received a 3.3% increase in February of this year). We are committed to moving wages forward for our people and securing a long term future for all of our people.
We also are have a positive view and support proposed changes to the network as one potential benefit is the opportunity to significantly address broken shifts in the industry and provide more balanced work/life outcomes for our people.
As an organisation we have moved a long way towards creating an environment for all of our people (2000) that will allow them to be successful. Heavy investment in training, Health and Safety, new facilities, new fleet ($100m +) over last few years is a clear demonstration of our intent. Our operating strategy is based on delivering “Reliability” – Reliable outcomes for our people, customers, partners and shareholders recognising the need to deliver value for money and a satisfactory return on investment.
Zane Fulljames
Chief Executive Officer
NZ Bus
Thanks for stopping by Zane, hopefully you can get this resolved soon for everyone involved because as I think we can all agree that we don’t want a repeat of 3 years ago (BTW I never had an issue with you honouring the stop work meeting as is your legal requirements)
Auckland bus drivers reject pay offer
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10817606