Bus strike
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threatens Edinburgh Festival
• More than 200 Edinburgh Corporation Transport dayshift workers voted "over whelmingly" at a midnight meeting to strike on the eve of the Edinburgh International Festival — which runs from August 20 to September 9 — in support of a £.3 across-the-board wage increase claim. The strike call was endorsed unanimously on Monday by some 540 Corporation transport department employees.
Mr Ralph Addison, convener of the busmen's branch of the TGWU, said the strike would involve 2000 drivers, conductors and conductresses and 300 staff working indoors. The claim was for an increase in the basic wage and not one for an adjustment in conditions. It had been delayed by national wage negotiations finalized in June.
Cllr Donald Swanson, for the Corporation, said he hoped negotiations would continue. The basic rates range from £18.20 for a conductor to ,E23.37-1for a double-deck o-m-o driver.
The transport department says that at present a national claim for shift payments and spreadover rates has been referred to arbitration. The claim involves a 15 per cent increase in these rates, payable above any locally agreed rate.