Bus drivers plan further work stoppage

Gary Froggatt

Aucklanders face two more days of a punishing bus strike - and yet another stopwork meeting later in the week - after peace talks failed at the weekend.

Militants among about 350 drivers at a meeting yesterday in Panmure lacked majority support to prolong the six-day strike past tomorrow night, despite concern at Stagecoach's refusal to make a new pay offer before a mediator on Saturday.

The four bus unions, which have been negotiating with the company for seven months for a renewed collective agreement, will call an all-up stopwork meeting of the 900 or so striking drivers on Thursday to vote on ways of breaking the deadlock.

Combined unions advocate Gary Froggatt said it was unfortunate that the meeting would cause yet more disruption, although in off-peak hours, but negotiators needed a full mandate for their next step in the gruelling dispute.

"We hope the public will understand but the drivers are determined to follow through," he said.

But although he said the drivers remained adamant they deserved an hourly wage of $16, up from $13.94c now, he confirmed that reducing the demand to $15 for a one-year deal would be among proposals for Thursday's meeting.

Stagecoach has offered an immediate $15, and a $600 lump sum in lieu of six months' backpay, but only in a deal in which wages will rise in stages to $16 by 2007.

The drivers intend marching after the meeting to the Auckland Regional Council's offices to demand it puts pressure on Stagecoach to settle the dispute, given the millions of tax dollars it receives in subsidies.

Council chairman Mike Lee has said he supports the bus drivers' pay claims on a personal level, but insists his organisation cannot become involved in industrial negotiations.

He said he told the firm that he did not want the sides "fighting to the death of the last bus patron".

Opposing council member Michael Barnett, who is chief executive of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, questioned how Mr Lee could separate his private views from the chains of office and said he believed Stagecoach had gone a long way towards the drivers' demands.

He said both the council and the Government, as champions of public transport, should do more to urge the parties to settle the dispute to guard its credibility.

Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard has rejected a suggestion that council reserves be used for car-parks during the strike, but said the matter was being kept under review.

Mr Hubbard said he was advised there were still spaces available in parking buildings during strike days last week. City transport chairman Richard Simpson said allowing reserves to be used for parking would undermine efforts to persuade more people to use trains and other alternative methods of transport but his committee would discuss strike contingency planning today.

The Employment Relations Authority is preparing to hear a company application tomorrow on whether it has jurisdiction to make a binding pay ruling.

Stagecoach will argue that the unions have been in "serious and sustained" breach of good faith but Mr Froggatt says he will produce 700 drivers to testify that the pay offer was explained properly to them.

What the company offers

* $600 cash in lieu of six-months' backpay.
* Hourly wage of $15 now, rising to $15.33c next year and $16 in 2007.

What the drivers want

* Full backpay of $1000 or more.
* Hourly wage of $16 now.