Industrial action at Go North East (GNE) bus company came to an end on 2 December after members of Unite accepted a pay deal. The deal was a 10.5% pay rise, backdated to 31 June, and a further 0.7% from 1 January. There is a minimum of 4% in June 2024, but if RPI-inflation is higher, the company will match it. RPI is the higher measure of inflation – employers usually use the lower CPI measure. The company has promised no changes to working conditions without union agreement. The majority of suspensions of union members during the action have been lifted.
“Members accepted the deal by a slim margin of 50.28%. Seven votes were the decider, that’s how close it was. There are concerns about possible changes to working conditions further down the line, but that is now a fight for another day.
“Being on the picket line for seven weeks has been an overall positive experience, as I really feel I’ve finally been able to get to know my colleagues. As a bus driver, roughly 90% of my day is spent on my own, only seeing workmates as we zoom past each other, or very briefly when handing a bus over at the end of a shift. I think that the real victory is definitely that.
“United, we stood against GNE and that’s something that, despite their best efforts, they can’t take away from us. GNE attempted divide-and-conquer tactics and has even been suspending drivers for further investigation for the awful crime of telling the truth about the strikes on social media platforms.
“The atmosphere on the line has been great and they failed completely to break us. Members have been helping each other out, bringing food and drinks in for everyone. We’ve kept warm with a fire going, sang songs to keep morale up, and each depot had a visit from ‘Scabbie the rat’.
“It’s honestly been great and though nobody wanted it to go as long as it did (particularly when it’s been made evident that GNE had the money to avoid the situation altogether – offering free travel to all customers for a week, at a cost of a whopping £1.8 million!) I feel that I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to strike with.
“But for better or worse, the members accepted the pay deal. As seven famous dwarves once sang: ‘Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go.’”
