Buses

The 69th National Busworkers Conference will be held on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st April 2012 at Croyde Bay Holiday Village, Croyde, North Devon, EX33 1QB.

Conference will be composed of duly elected delegates from branches with bus membership. Each branch with less than 100 members may send two delegates. Branches with more than 100 members may send two delegates for the first 100 with one additional delegate for every 100 members or part thereinafter.

Boxing Day pay deal at Metroline 2011.

In 2010 the Boxing Day pay was £422 as an average.
In 2011 it is £303 as an average.

A difference of £119 less for the drivers compared to 2010.

This is a -28.2% reduction in their pay!!!

The total duties worked on Boxing Day 2011 at West Perivale Garage excluding the new 105 route was 94.

A pair of pickpockets who stole £400 from a 75-year old woman have been jailed for five months.

Nedyalka Mihova, 38, and her daughter-in-law Ivanka Mihova, 21, pleaded guilty at Ealing Magistrates court to theft and were sentenced on Tuesday 22nd March 2011.

On October 30th 2010, the victim boarded the number 427 bus in Southall Broadway after withdrawing £400 from the bank. Nedyalka and Ivanka followed the pensioner onto the bus and stole the cash from her handbag before leaving the bus.

Leafleting will take place on Saturday 14th May 2011 outside The Original Tour company's shop, The Original London Visitor Centre, 17-19, Cockspur Street, Trafalgar Square, London, SW1Y 5BL, from 10am, in support of Zara Senkan, who was sacked by The Original London Sightseeing Tour Ltd.

The Original London Sightseeing Tour bus company dismissed Zara Senkan shortly after she put in a grievance about numerous instances of sex discrimination.

The 68th National Bus Workers Conference will take place on Friday 15th and Saturday 16th April at The Exeter Arms, Rydon Lane, Middle Moor, Exeter, Devon, EX2 7HL.

Driver Alarms, Fines Pool Subscriptions, Driving Regulations, TUPE clarification and the RMT diary are among the resolutions at this years conference.

Transport For London's commissioner Peter Hendy was recently interviewed by Dave Hill for The Guardian.

In the interview Hendy says that TFL will be facing cuts in its budget of 21% over the next few years. Future job losses are discussed with Hendy foreseeing that "The other thing you take a hit on is the cost of running the place. We will be doing less in some areas, so we will need less people to do it"

On March 31st 2010, Abdul Omer Mohsin was sacked for being an effective union rep at London Sovereign. London Sovereign is owned alongside London United by the Transdev group.

Omer began working at London United in February 2003 and transferred to London Sovereign in July 2007. The wages at London Sovereign were about £4,000 a year less than those paid at London United. Omer made his colleagues aware of the huge gap in wages and began to organise a campaign for parity.

Come and join the May Day march on Saturday 1st May 2010. The march to Trafalgar Square will start at 12 noon from Clerkenwell Green.

A book re-launch of "May Day" a novel by John Somerfield, will take place at 11am at the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell.

THE £1.59 BILLION takeover of the Arriva transport group was condemned today by Britain’s biggest specialist transport union as another worrying step towards the creation of a pan-European private transport monopoly.

RMT will be seeking urgent meetings with DB and its newly acquired subsidiaries in order to safeguard the jobs and interests of its members.

Bus Inspector Anthony Burke was medically terminated by Transport for London for taking time off following pit bull dog, gun and racial assaults on him at work.

A protest took place on Friday 16th April 2010 outside 200, Buckingham Palace Road, Victoria (pictured).

A demonstration is to take place at the offices of UBS at 100, Liverpool Street, EC2, to protest against the actions of Lancaster (Rentokil).

Alberto Durango was sacked from Lancaster on 4th February 2010 for organising the workers and standing up for their rights. Alberto is a good friend of London RMT Bus Workers and they are asked to attend and give their support to him and the cleaners.

The cleaners are being pressured to agree to a cut in working hours with subsequent loss of pay while still being expected to do the same amount of work.

The next Central Line West branch meeting will take place on Thursday 1st April from 4pm - 6pm at The Redan, 1, Westbourne Grove, London, W2 4UA. The nearest tube stations are Queensway and Bayswater.

The next Hammersmith and City branch meeting will take place on Wednesday 7th April from 5pm at The Exmouth Arms, 1, Starcross Street, Euston, NW1 2HR. The nearest tube stations are Euston and Euston Square.

The next RMT Bus Workers Consultative Committee meeting will be held at Unity House, on Thursday 25th March 2010 at 11.30am.

Items for the Agenda should reach Head Office by no later than Monday 22nd March 2010.

The next meeting of the Morden and Oval branch will take place on Wednesday 24th March from 5.30pm at The Wheatsheaf public house, 2, Upper Tooting Road, London, SW17. It is situated next to Tooting Bec tube station.

On Tuesday 26th January 2010 at Ealing Council's cabinet meeting it was decided by the cabinet that due to the limited progress made to date with their "earlier conciliatory approach" to Transport for London and London United, to address the problems that arise through the poor management of bus operations at the route 94 bus stand in Acton Green, it authorised council officers to remove the bus stand. The council will also write again to TfL and the bus operator London United to try to progress this issue, express concern over the issue and insist upon urgent action.

A demonstration will take place from 1pm - 2pm at 100, Liverpool Street, London, EC2, in support of Alberto Durango, a cleaner and rep who has been harassed, victimised and was sacked for his union activities by Lancaster (Rentokil).

Alberto is a good friend of London RMT Bus Workers and they are asked to attend the demonstration and give their support to him.

A gang of First employees took more than £200,000 in bribes to let dozens of unqualified drivers drive buses. The men worked at First's Marsh Lane depot in Tottenham. They would charge between £1,500 and £2,500 to supply bogus test certificates and paperwork. Many of those who paid could not even speak English or even understand road signs.

A Morden and Oval branch busworkers meeting will take place on Monday 8th March from 4pm at Ruskin House Trade Union Centre, 23, Coombe Road, Croydon, CR0 1BD. The nearest train stations are East Croydon from the north and South Croydon from the south. It is a five minute walk from both stations or bus routes 119, 312 and 466 from East Croydon or 405 from Redhill to Coombe Road bus stop.

All RMT members are welcome to attend.

A well attended meeting of the RMT London Busworkers Committee took place on Monday 8th February 2010 at the Bulstrode pub in Hounslow. There was a great deal of enthusiasm and determination among the members to move forward in the new year and build on what has been achieved so far.

Many issues were discussed and important decisions were made as to the future role and activity of the committee.

Among the decisions made were:

• North London Convenor elected
• South London Convenor elected
• Action Plan for 2010 agreed