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10,000 bus jobs at risk, says TGWU
Page 7
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BUSMEN are becoming increasingly worried that the cost of implementing •the £6 rise awarded by the municipal bus employers will push the cost of bus operation so far into the red as to endanger jobs.
TGWU has requested meetings with the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Environment Secretary to discuss the financial crisis facing bus operators. Unless funds were forthcoming from Central Government, bus services throughout the UK would be seriously im paired, the union says.
"The entire industry stands four square behind this approach to senior Cabinet Ministers," said Mr Larry Smith, national passenger secretary. "Operators, including the National Bus Company, Scottish Bus Group, the Municipal Joint Council, and Greater Glasgow PTE have asked to be represented at the proposed meeting."
The union estimates that 10,000 jobs within the bus industry are at stake. They point out that the lack of Government cash resulted in passengers having to pay greatly increased fares on inferior services. "This lowers the morale of bus workers to the degree that industrial action is threatened to reverse the trend, by men in fear of redundancy."
In Scotland about 1,000 busmen are in fear of their jobs unless urgent action is taken to maintain services at a reasonable level, Mr Raymond McDonald, Scottish secretary of the TGWU, said last week. He was critical of the local authorities and the thinking behind their decisions to grant subsidies for some services. The Scottish Bus Group had suffered a staggering 12.5 per cent reduction in passengers since fares were increased in March. The Group had also reduced its fleet by over 6 per cent.
Mr Smith said the bus industry in Great Britain had reduced its labour force by 40 per cent over the past 10 years — largely because of agreements allowing the widespread use of one-man operation.