About 35 per cent of the Auckland Transport system will be suspended indefinitely. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
About 35 per cent of the Auckland Transport system will be suspended indefinitely. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
More than a third of Auckland’s bus network will be shut down after strike action continues by union drivers for NZ Bus-operated routes.
It will impact about 4000 trips per day and “tens of thousands of Aucklanders” according to Auckland Transport (AT).
The boss of NZ Bus also slammed union members for the elevation in strike action today, calling them “disingenuous and incredibly unhelpful”.
This weekend’s All Blacks v Springboks test match at Go Media Stadium (Mt Smart) will continue as planned, but AT encouraged customers to take train services to Penrose, or existing scheduled bus services provided by other operators.
The industrial action more than doubles the journey time for public transport users on some of the affected routes. For example, for commuters who take the OuterLink from Point Chevalier to the central city, the cancellations mean the usual 25 minute journey will now take more than 50 minutes and involve multiple bus changes.
In a statement from AT, it said it was just after 6pm tonight that discussions between NZ Bus and the unions - Tramways and First Union - failed to reach an agreement.
NZ Bus, the largest bus service operator in the Auckland region, has suspended all of its bus trips from 2am tomorrow as a result of this, AT said.
Union members will also be suspended without pay during this time.
NZ Bus CEO Calum Haslop said drivers turning off their ticketing systems today forced it to suspend all drivers participating in this action and suspend its bus services while the strike notice remains in force.
“Within hours of agreeing to undertake facilitated bargaining yesterday, the unions then issued a further strike notice that includes drivers refusing to sign on to AT’s bus tracking and ticketing system,” Haslop said.
“This action would result in a material breach of our contracts with AT and create significant health and safety issues across the wider network.”
NZ Bus, the largest bus service operator in the Auckland region, has suspended all its bus trips, AT said. Photo / Michael Craig
The latest action comes after a week of strikes which saw thousands of commuters affected as union drivers walked off the job between 4am and 8am.
Haslop called the move by union members “disingenuous and incredibly unhelpful”.
“The company remains open to further bargaining, but simply can’t operate services while drivers take such action, and it appears that the unions themselves can’t agree on what it will take to settle,” Haslop said.
First Union organiser Hayley Courtney said about 700 drivers have taken part in the action across both unions.
Courtney said to suspend the union members, NZ Bus would have to do this with each member individually. Since this could be a long process, she didn’t know how many people it would affect.
She said having their livelihoods threatened like this “is always a bit scary”.
“But when you’ve been assaulted all the time and your wages have gone from being the highest to the lowest, it gets to you.
“I think that’s the point where a lot of drivers have been driven to with the company so they would be scared and worried for their financials, but we are still united because we have had enough.”
Courtney said union members have been trying to go back to the negotiating table and will be trying again next week even through the suspension.
Auckland Transport’s executive general manager for public transport services Stacey van der Putten apologised to users for the disruption.
As school returns next week, Putten was hopeful this issue was going to be resolved quickly as closures also impact school trips.
“I hope that the unions and NZ Bus are able to quickly resolve this dispute so that tens of thousands of Aucklanders aren’t unnecessarily inconvenienced over the next week as they return from the school holidays,” Putten said.
