Arriva bus drivers subject to verbal abuse and bricks through windows are set to receive a "slap in the face" real-terms pay cut amid rising inflation.
The majority of Arriva North West bus services are cancelled across Merseyside, Lancashire and Greater Manchester as drivers walk out over a below-inflation pay rise offered by the firm. On the picket line outside the Arriva Merseyside Bus Depot on Green Lane in Old Swan, members of union Unite are encouraged by the success of Arriva Yorkshire drivers in securing an improved pay rise of 9% - up from an offer of 4.1% - after a combined eight weeks of strike.
Union representative Ged Bresnahan, 62, said there are "some characters in the garage jollying everyone up", and there are plenty of biscuits, tea and coffee, and the honking horns of passing cars to keep spirits high. He told the ECHO: "All we're after is a fair pay for the job we're doing."
READ MORE: When train and bus services will go back to normal after strikes
He said the drivers earn a flat rate of roughly £13 per hour, regardless of overtime or weekends. This equates to roughly £27,000 a year for drivers working 40-hour weeks. This was "a decent wage", according to one driver, Alan, who only gave his first name.
But with prices continuing to rise, the current pay level feels less fair to workers on strike. Ged said: "I went the other day to fill the car up for the week. It usually costs me £55 to fill the car up, but it was £100. It's a big impact. You don't notice that until it actually happens, but now when you look, overnight, over the last couple of months, it's jumped that far up."
Drivers take on the responsibility of safely transporting passengers around the city - indeed, the strike means some parts of Liverpool are cut off, with no other public transport links. But they also face a number of risks on the job, including assaults, breakdowns, and road traffic collisions.
Simon, 58, was surprised to encounter the "horrendous" Mischief Night when he became a bus driver after moving to Liverpool from Derby in 2002. He said: "You don't know whether a brick's going to come through your window. The eggs are not so bad, but when it starts getting to bricks and windows going, you start thinking this is risky."
The verbal and physical abuse doesn't stop after October 30 each year. Drivers on the Green Lane picket said Arriva North West is good at supporting them when such incidents happen. But drivers working unsociable night shifts are left to fend for themselves or call in police for support when something happens due to the lack of inspectors.
Simon said: "It's a decent job. You get on with it. You get to see places around the city. But you'd be amazed by how much stress there is in it. People might say, 'It's only driving a bus', but every day I've got 75 people's lives in my hands."
As wages fall behind the cost of living, many feel the pay is just not worth the risk and responsibility of the job anymore. Alan, who was recently spat at on the job, said: "We've lost a hell of a lot of drivers who are just going on the wagons for better pay, and people are just becoming disillusioned with doing the job because of the abuse we take every day."
Ged added: "It's an important job, really important when you've got live people on there. Nothing against the wagons drivers - they deserve the money they get - but they seem to be on a lot more money than what we are, and we've got live cargo on our buses while they could be taking a pallet of milk. They get maybe £4 or £5 more and hour than a bus driver, and we have responsibility for those people's lives."
The striking Unite members are calling on Arriva to give a higher pay rise to reflect the responsibilities they take on, and the difficulties they face with the rising cost of living. Simon is already "frustrated because there's nothing [he] can do about the way inflation is going".
For him, a below-inflation pay rise means "working and not being able to have the same things [he] had before", and making choices between shopping in Sainsbury's or shopping in Aldi. He said: "Everyone wants to aspire to the ability to go on holiday, to not think about whether I spend on what I eat or on heating bills."
That's at the heart of many pay disputes currently disrupting rail and bus services, court cases and call centres, and maybe soon hospital wards and schools. Key workers on low or stagnant wages are already starting the struggle, but many feel the worst is yet to come.
It's summer now, but winter brings higher heating bills, fuelled further by a rise in the energy price cap set to rise to £3,500 in October. Simon is getting by for now, but he said to ask him again come winter. Ged said: "There are a lot of people worried about that. We've had one or two people say they'd rather just sit there with a wooly jumper and sit around with the fire on - switch [the heating] on for an hour, switch it on and switch it off."
Arriva North West offered drivers an 8.5% pay rise, but Unite said this is actually a 5% par rise, followed by a further 3.5% in October. The bus firm's boss, Howard Farrall, said: "We are very disappointed for all our customers affected by the continuing strike action, with still no date yet for services being resumed.
"We remain committed to getting our drivers back to work and buses back on the road as soon as possible. So, it is incredibly frustrating that our trade union partners, Unite and GMB, have today refused both to consider calling off the strike while we bring in ACAS (an independent body helping to resolve industrial disputes) – or to even meet with them."
He added: "As we have stated repeatedly, we greatly value our people. They do a crucial job, keeping our communities and customers moving. They thoroughly deserve a pay rise, especially with the cost of living increasing. While trade union members are receiving ‘strike pay’ - we also recognise the importance of getting all of our colleagues back to work. Not only does the bus strike harm the very communities we serve, it is in nobody’s interest for this strike to persist a day longer.
"It’s why we’ve put on the table a very generous increase for bus drivers at 8.5% – which is higher than most workers in either the public or private sector are receiving in these difficult economic times. But any pay rises must be affordable, to protect jobs and ensure that bus networks are sustainable when Government funding support finishes in the autumn."
"We ask, again, for the union leadership to suspend the strike, so that we can serve our communities and work with us and ACAS to now bring this dispute to a swift resolution."
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