A bus company has been accused of damaging the daily lives of passengers as people in north-east England are forced to stay at home, missing work, medical appointments and college because of a bitter pay dispute with its drivers.
Martin Gannon, the leader of Gateshead council and chair of the north-east joint transport committee, said what was happening as a result of the Go North East industrial action was “an absolute disgrace”.
Drivers represented by the Unite union have been on indefinite strike over pay for 10 days, paralysing large parts of the bus network across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham.
Gannon said: “Go North East says that normally around 175,000 journeys are made on its bus services every day, and behind that statistic sit 175,000 stories of real people who are now struggling to get around.
“Thousands of people are stuck at home, isolated from friends and family, missing work and medical appointments or being late for college. I’ve heard about people staying with friends so that they are near their work, and others who are seriously considering moving home because of this.
“Some people are having to shell out repeatedly for expensive taxis just to go about their daily lives, or to beg friends and neighbours for a lift. Our town and city centres are in gridlock. It is an absolute disgrace.”
Gannon, the north-east’s most senior elected transport figure, said local authorities were paying Go North East many millions of pounds each year for carrying concessionary passes and shoring up unprofitable routes. “I will be making sure that every possible financial penalty is applied for non-delivery,” he said.
The company’s actions, Gannon said, were “damaging the bus network and the lives of its customers”.
The union has rejected a 10.3% pay rise offer. It says drivers at Go North East are paid £12.83 an hour yet equivalent workers at sister company Go North West earn £15.53 an hour.
Talks between Go North East and Unite, brokered by the conciliation service Acas, were held on Monday and broke down in the afternoon with both sides taking aim at the other.
Unite said the strike could be resolved for £238,000, “less than the pay for two Go North East directors”. It said the company had refused to budge.
The Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “Go North East could end this dispute with the stroke of a pen with the equivalent of money they’d find down the back of a sofa. The parent company is awash with cash and yet they won’t stump up the funds it would cost them to end this dispute right now.
“Go North East should be ashamed of its own stubbornness and how it is treating our members and the communities that built its transport empire.”
Go North East blames Unite for the harm to communities and for the breakdown in talks, claiming the union made new demands on Monday.
The company’s business director, Ben Maxfield, said: “Unite demanded six monthly pay increases – as well as rises backdated to July 2023, and another in July 2024, Unite are now insisting on an additional pay increase on 1 January 2024.
“All increases, they say, must be higher than anything already on the table.
“Passengers are facing unacceptable levels of hardship. But instead of a constructive dialogue all we get from the local Unite representatives is a set of moving goalposts, escalating demands and a succession of U-turns.”
