Bus strikes in Coventry resolved as National Express drivers agree new payment offer.
By Noah McIlroy.
Hundreds of striking bus drivers working for National Express Coventry voted in favour of a 16.2 per cent pay rise on Saturday (March 25th), which concluded numerous days of travel disruptions and chaos across the city.
Around 3,100 members of Unite within the West Midlands, the trade union who were at the forefront of organising the strikes, voted 71 per cent against the initial deal put forward by National Express in a ballot held two weeks ago (Saturday, March 18th).
In an official statement released by Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham that same day, she declared the following: “National Express is an extremely wealthy company and makes considerable profits from the hard work of our members, who are not paid enough for the difficult and stressful job they do. The company must come back with an offer our members can accept.
“Unite’s top priority is defending and improving our members’ jobs, pay and conditions and National Express’ workforce have their union’s full support during these strikes,” Ms Graham added.
The trade union additionally claimed that during the years 2018-2021, average pay at National Express decreased by ‘six per cent in real terms’, with the margins further increasing in 2022, due to ‘rocketing prices’.
It’s been widely reported too that a National Express bus driver’s base salary starts out at £11.80 an hour, rising by £2.20 after three years of service to accumulate a total valuation of £14.00.
However, when compared to Abellio workers in London, drivers are paid £18.00 per hour after just two years of service – a 22.2 per cent increase compared to National Express Coventry.
Full industrial action begun as a result of Unite’s announcement on Monday (March 20th), with services across hundreds of different routes being delayed, disrupted or straight-up cancelled.
The only routes that remained fairly active were those which served transportation towards University Hospital Coventry.
The industrial conflict escalated further on Wednesday morning (March 22nd), as buses were prevented from leaving Coventry’s depot, with a 45-year-old woman arrested amongst the sheer chaos on the picket lines.
Speaking on the Friday before National Express and Unite reached their pay rise agreement (March 24th), some Coventry residents shared their concerns regarding the strikes.
One believed the problem had been ‘overtaken by the Ukrainian war’, another said they could not ‘see a way how this can continue’, and another stating ‘forget all opinions, it’s common sense,’ to pay the money the workers are asking for.
Thankfully for all regular passengers, National Express Coventry confirmed at the weekend that the recent vote ended the pay dispute with trade union Unite.
All travellers across Coventry were able to travel via a reduced service on Sunday (March 26th), with services back to normal throughout yesterday (March 27th).
A spokesperson for National Express Coventry said: “We are pleased that the drivers have voted in favour of accepting the offer.”
“We are very sorry to our customers and the communities we serve for the disruption and uncertainty caused last week. We are pleased to be able to put this behind us and focus on delivering a bus service that customers can rely on,” they added.