The “difficult and challenging” bus strikes left some communities in Liverpool “completely cut off” according to a senior city councillor.
More than a month of industrial action by Arriva bus drivers on Merseyside came to an end last week after union members secured what they described as “magnificent” pay deal. After 29 days of walk-outs by members of Unite over pay, the union confirmed an agreement had been reached with Arriva and its drivers after more than 2,000 members agreed to accept an 11.1% pay offer, worth an additional average of £2,300 on the workers’ salaries, equal to an extra £55 per week.
Cllr Dan Barrington, Liverpool Council cabinet member for climate change and environment, told a committee last night that while he was pleased the buses were back on the road, the industrial action had impacted plenty across the city. He said: “They’ve been really difficult and challenging for people.
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“I think there’s lots of parts of the city that rely completely on bus travel and completely on Arriva services as well and I think some communities were completely cut off during the strike. I’m pleased we’ve now got a resolution on that.”
Drivers were back on the road last week following a fresh round of talks between both sides in which the new offer was put forward after weeks without reaching a breakthrough. A previous offer of 9.6% had been overwhelmingly rejected by four in five of Unite members.
Cllr Barrington added: “We all know how hard the staff work on buses and I’m really pleased they’ve got that offer through and the buses up and running.” Cllr William Shortall, Old Swan, shared his experiences of using the remaining Stagecoach services that were available during the walk out period.
He said: “I welcome the bus strike being over, I use the bus all the time, and when the strike was on, the buses were overcapacity. They were really, really full and very uncomfortable.
“I was on the bus and we were there for over two hours because of an incident so I really welcome that.” West Derby Labour councillor Barrington said his own father had been one of the commuters impacted by the month-long industrial action.
He said: “It was a really difficult time and we were lucky we still had a Stagecoach service but it was one every half an hour. My dad works in the city centre and he was paying for taxis most days to get in and out of work because you just couldn’t guarantee a space on a bus, so it’s really good it’s been resolved.”
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