Friday 23rd July 2004 Strike Bulletin, First South Yorkshire BusesDear Friends, Bothers & Sisters, fellow trade unionists and supporters everywhere! We need your support in any way you can! As from today the Company rejected our final bid to end this dispute and talks have now broken down. From Monday 26th July the Company will breach a written agreement which we made with them on the outset of our strike not to use scab labour to run services, in return for our co-operation, which we have freely given, to allow a specified number of contract services to run, on a no fares basis, picking up passengers. The agreed contract buses totalled 10 - 12 vehicles out of the Sheffield depot and fewer from the other 4 depots in Rotherham, Doncaster and Halfway. From Monday they intend to run a half hour service on a large number of key routes in Sheffield, running out of the Sheffield Olive Grove depot, using managers drafted in from all First Bus subsidiaries in UK. They have freely told us of this at the end of today’s meeting but they say the scab drivers will not take fares. They are trying to intimidate our workforce who will obviously see this as inflammatory. But this £160M + profit-making multinational will not break the resolve of our drivers. Indeed this will only make our members more determined than ever to see this through to the bitter end! I have just returned from the picket line at my depot in Sheffield and addressed some 50 drivers, not one of whom were worried at all by this development. We have agreed to organise a disciplined and legal picket on Monday morning and will invite the police to attend to ensure peace. We will however have a massive presence of our members assembled to show peaceful resistance and we will organise “events“ during the week to attract public displays of solidarity. The first of these is tomorrow Saturday 24th July when all supporters of our dispute are invited to a non-alcoholic disco outside Olive Grove Garage at lunchtime starting at 12 noon. Bring the family and have a good time! Just for the record the “bottom line“ we are holding out for ( and which the Company rejected today) was:
If you think this is an unreasonable, militant, revolutionary, greedy position to take, please let us know! Clearly we are in for the long haul. Messages of support are vital but we are now urgently appealing for financial assistance. Fortunately our drivers are paid 10 days in arrears so it’s the pay packet on Tuesday 10 th August which will be hit first. We need to ensure that our more vulnerable drivers can turn to a solidarity fund to help them last this through. Clearly most of these will be on the appallingly low starter rate. Can you help? Can your branch make a speedy donation to help us keep this strike solid? Please send donations to First South Yorkshire Strike Fund and make cheques payable to TGWU. the address is Steve Clark This strike affects everyone in First Group. It affects everyone in the UK bus industry. It affects every trade unionist and everyone who believes in helping workers to stand up against highly profitable multinationals who abuse their employees. We thank you for the solidarity which we know we can recieve. yours in comradeship Martin Mayer |