Tuesday 13 January 2015

London bus drivers in 24-hour strike

Commuters queue at Victoria Station
Commuters were forced to queue at Tube stations as they looked for alternatives to bus journeys

Bus drivers in London are taking part in a 24-hour strike as part of a campaign for a single agreement covering pay and conditions.
Members of the Unite union at 18 bus companies walked out at 00:01 GMT. Transport for London (TfL) said about 33% of its 7,500 buses were running.
Unite said with no collective pay deal there were 80 different pay rates for drivers doing the same job.
But TfL said the action was "extremely disappointing".
'Last resort'
Services were affected from about 04:00 with TfL adding buses operating on Tuesday night into Wednesday would also be disrupted.
The strike has left regular bus commuters looking for different ways of travelling around London. On Twitter Lloyd tweeted: "It was a war zone outside Victoria tube station today due to this bus strike, I had to give a few folk the cold stare"
But Jake, a bus driver of one year, said he had gone on strike because he felt his wage was not good enough to support his life in London. More