By George Banks
For four days in September, the heart of Greater Manchester’s transport network stopped beating. Around 2,000 bus drivers brought the city to a standstill, taking powerful strike action against the three main operators: Stagecoach, Metroline, and Andy Burnham’s vaunted Bee Network.
The immediate trigger was a derisory pay offer, a mere 3.5% for most, and just 6% for the lowest paid. This is a brutal pay cut in the face of the soaring inflation of the past few years. But this fight is about far more than wages. It is a rebellion against degrading conditions that strip workers of their basic dignity.
In Stockport pickets spoke angrily about the scandalous lack of facilities. Depot toilets are largely unusable, and drivers are denied sufficient breaks, forced to work eight to 12 hours without relief. In a shocking revelation, Stagecoach management reportedly told drivers to ‘piss in a bottle and get back on with the job’. Meanwhile, they are expected to endure increasingly extreme summer heat in cabs with no air conditioning.
On the defiant picket lines the mood was clear. These workers, who bear the immense responsibility of safely transporting thousands of passengers daily, are treated as unskilled labour and paid a poverty wage. They see bosses driving expensive cars, while they are eating beans on toast, struggling to support their families. There is a sharp understanding that it is their labour that creates the profits, and that without them, the system grinds to halt.
They remember their history too: the last decent pay rise they won was not a gift from management, but was wrested from the bosses through the fierce 2021 Go North West strike. That victory fuels their resolve today, knowing that power lies in collective action.
The grievance is also political. Mayor Andy Burnham’s Bee Network is seen as a smokescreen for suppressing wages. As far as these workers are concerned, Labour has become a party for the bosses, abandoning its working class base. While some look for answers in dangerous dead ends like Nigel Farage, many recognise that migrant bashing solves nothing.
The enthusiasm for a genuine workers’ alternative shows a desire to fight the real enemy, the profiteering class, from the bus company bosses to the supermarket giants, who hike prices and rack up profits, while our living standards collapse. More strikes are scheduled from 30 September to 2 October, with six further days of action running throughout October. These drivers are showing the way forward. Their action proves that workers have the power to hit the bosses where it hurts, in their profits. To win, this struggle must escalate and spread across the Greater Manchester bus network – and eventually the entire country – until victory is achieved.
