Stagecoach staff could strike too

... joining rail workers, nurses, teachers, council staff and lawyers as Winter of Discontent 2.0 looms

BUS passengers across Scotland face massive disruption after Stagecoach staff threatened to strike in protest over pay.

Around 1,000 bus drivers, engineers, administrators and cleaners have backed industrial action in a last-ditch attempt to negotiate better salaries.

The move will lead Scotland ever closer to the worst spate of strikes since 1978 and 1979, branded the Winter of Discontent – which helped bring down Jim Callaghan’s Labour government – as the bus staff join railway workers, teachers, council employees and lawyers in demanding higher pay.

Last night, trade union Unite warned that unless there is a ‘significant shift’ in Stagecoach’s pay offer across its Scottish divisions, then strike action by the end of October will be ‘inevitable’.

It comes as several ScotRail services will be cancelled today due to RMT Union strikes. Last week, nurses also moved a step closer to taking industrial action over pay, with their union announcing an indicative ballot on the matter.

And last month, hundreds of lawyers in Scotland went on strike, refusing to take on custody cases over the holiday weekend amid a dispute over allegedly low-paid legal aid work. Unions Unison, Unite and GMB are also fighting for council and frontline staff.

The SNP has been accused of hammering local authorities with cuts of almost £1 billion over eight years, through failing to properly fund its council tax freeze policy.

Speaking of the proposed bus driver walk-out, Dougie Maguire, Unite regional coordinator, said: ‘Unite has received a resounding mandate for industrial action across the whole of Stagecoach’s operations in Scotland.

‘The results should make Stagecoach sit up and take notice that their workers feel greatly undervalued and underappreciated.

‘The workforce has continued to work professionally throughout the pandemic and they have made a huge contribution to the massive profits of the Stagecoach Group.

‘We want to emphasise that Unite’s ambition has been to solve this dispute amicably, without our members having to take strike action.

‘Yet, our members have had no option but to consider walking because the company hasn’t done enough talking.’

Mr Maguire added: ‘The company needs to make a significant shift in its pay offers to end this dispute or

‘Workers feel greatly undervalued’

industrial action in the coming weeks will be inevitable.’

Stagecoach’s latest accounts reveal that the group made a profit of £58.4 million.

But on Friday the union confirmed that around 600 of its members in Fife, Perth and Strathtay rejected the latest pay offer from Stagecoach East – a 2.4 per cent rise backdated to May.

Fears have been raised that without a resolution, any industrial action will involve disruption to the COP26 climate change conference.