Prolonged bus strike threatened

Auckland's main bus fleet is under threat of a marathon six-day strike in a fortnight, after Stagecoach drivers yesterday roundly rejected the company's latest bid for a pay settlement.

Negotiators from four bus unions representing 1000 drivers intend serving notice today of renewed work bans from Tuesday, leading to a full strike from Thursday, May 5.

Drivers will in the first instance refuse to complete final bus trips at the end of shifts if they are running late, and will take 10-minute breaks between runs.

They will also consider letting passengers ride free for a day, an idea which Stagecoach indicates could be open to legal challenge.

The company is pinning its hopes for now on a continuation of negotiations before an Employment Relations Authority "facilitator" on Tuesday.

But combined unions advocate Gary Froggatt said a pay offer presented to a stopwork meeting was rejected by 98 per cent of almost 900 drivers present after they found it was no different than previous bids.

He said some drivers at the meeting wanted to stage an immediate and unlimited strike, and a minority refused to return to work afterwards.

Most of Stagecoach's more than 600 Auckland buses were idle from 9.30am to 2.30pm yesterday, halting more than 30,000 of the company's 150,000 daily passenger trips.

The company said, however, that wildcat action afterwards by about 20 drivers at its Wiri and Swanson depots had little impact on homeward peak-time services.

Mr Froggatt said the equivalent of almost six months' backpay would have improved a company pay offer which drivers rejected before holding a one-day strike this month.

That was for $15 an hour now, to be followed by $15.33 next year and $16 in 2007.

The unions are seeking $16 now as well as a range of conditions such as morning and afternoon tea breaks.

But he said the company withdrew the backpay offer on Wednesday night, after union negotiators refused to recommend the overall deal, indicating instead that they would take a neutral stance and leave it to the drivers to decide.

Stagecoach operations director Warren Fowler did not believe the company could do any more to satisfy the drivers as its offer was "very fair and reasonable". The company's offer amounted to a 7.6 per cent initial pay rise from $13.94 an hour, and 14.8 per cent over three years.