New Zealand : Bus strike threat
Go Wellington bus driver Don Reade, a 30-year
Bus drivers have threatened to bring Wellington's bus network to its knees in a dispute about their pay and conditions.
Bus routes presently operated by NZ Bus are being put out to tender by Greater Wellington Regional Council, and drivers fear a new bid winner might cut their wages by as much as $5 an hour.
"The company paying the lowest wages will get the work, because wages are the biggest cost of the operations," Tramways Union secretary Kevin O'Sullivan said.
Go Wellington buses head off from their Lambton Quay base on Tuesday.
He threatened "widespread disruption and industrial action on a scale never seen before" after the council refused to promise to retain drivers' pay and conditions.
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If the likes of Go Bus, owned by Ngai Tahu and Tainui, won the routes, O'Sullivan said drivers faced a drop in pay of almost $5 an hour.
Auckland bus drivers protest in Mt Roskill in February, during a 24-hour strike over conditions of work and pay.
NZ Bus paid $20.97 an hour to union drivers in Wellington, going up to $21.25 at the end of the year, he said. But Go Bus paid about $16.02 in Dunedin, and up to $18 in Auckland.
O'Sullivan feared NZ Bus, which is owned by Infratil and runs the Go Wellington and Valley Flyer buses, could potentially "be wiped out of existence" by a tender system geared towards low-wage bidders.
Without a guarantee of pay and conditions written into tender contracts, "we are going to make sure there won't be any service running at all", he said. "If they want to bring in 1000 people from Fiji, then so be it."
The tender documents are likely to go to the market in early July, and would take effect in early 2018.
Council spokeswoman Philippa Lagan said it knew of a union stop-work meeting next week, but was not aware of any strike action.
The council had discussions with union leaders and pointed out that "we don't have any employment relationship with their members".
"The regional council is not going to intervene directly in the bus labour market by dictating staff transfers or labour rates and conditions."
She said tendering would select bus operators on "a balance of price and quality", testing best value for money, not simply cost reduction.
That approach was in line with other regional councils involved in similar contracting processes.
Go Bus commercial director Craig Worth said the company had not yet seen the final tender documents. "We haven't decided if we're even going to look when they come out, so we've got nothing to say really."
He refused to comment on the pay rates offered by Go Bus, or its relationship with unions.
THE AUCKLAND EXAMPLE
In January it was revealed that NZ Bus had lost its South Auckland routes, with Go Bus taking more than half.
In February, more than 1000 NZ Bus drivers took part in a strike that forced about 100,000 Auckland commuters to find alternative transport.
The union has 450 members in Wellington, including "100 per cent membership" in NZ Bus.
The tender process involves 16 "units of bus routes" throughout the region, only nine of which are being tendered. The other seven are allocated to existing operators and are not being tendered.
NZ Bus is expected to keep several of its services, but O'Sullivan fears it will need to renegotiate new contracts if competitors on surrounding routes are significantly cheaper.
NZ Bus chief executive Zane Fulljames refused to comment on the tenders. Greater Wellington sustainable transport committee chairman Paul Swain and council chairman Chris Laidlaw could not be reached.
Councillor Sue Kedgley said councillors were told they could not discuss tendering because it risked legal challenges to the process.
- Stuff