Hackney bus drivers to strike tomorrow

Tomorrow’s 24-hour bus strike starts at 3am tomorrow and will disrupt routes 153, 388 and 394.

The drivers, engineers and administration staff by members of Unite working for transport company CT Plus are protesting a 2.25 per cent pay offer.

Unite senior regional organiser Peter Kavanagh said wages at CT Plus put workers “at the bottom of the pay league” and that other companies paid up to £5,000 per year more.

“At first glance, 2.25 percent in today’s economy may not seem a bad deal but it looks very different to our members who are on low wages to begin with and are fed up struggling to get by,” Kavanagh said. “They also get no overtime pay and no compensation for working rest days or unsocial hours.”

Kavanagh told the Hackney Citizen that the union has not ruled out further industrial action. Unite recently wrote to CT Plus, statting, “We’ve made it very clear we’re very happy to open negotiations again – it’s our preferred route to resolve the dispute,” he said.

Unite will be left with “no alternative but to call further action” if assurances that CT Plus is prepared to improve its offer are not given, he added.

Affected routes will be the 153, which runs from Liverpool Street to Finsbury Park, the 388 from Hackney Wick to Embankment, and the 394 from Angel Islington to Homerton Hospital.

“CT Plus regrets the strike action organised by Unite,” a spokesperson said.  “We are sure that our customers were as disappointed as we were with this action. We think that [a pay increase of 2.25 per cent] is a very generous offer particularly when compared to the pay awards that most Londoners have been receiving in the current economic climate.

“We are entirely happy to re-open talks with Unite, but only if they can come to the table without the threat of further strikes and the misery they cause to the travelling public.”