Bus strike 'could cripple Canberra'

[Bus 400]

Bus strike 'could cripple Canberra'
BY NOEL TOWELL, CHIEF ASSEMBLY REPORTER
29 Apr, 2010 08:33 AM

A strike by Canberra's public bus drivers with the potential to cripple the capital's transport system could be looming after the drivers' union won the right to begin the industrial action process.But workplace relations authorities, worried by the capacity of a strike to combine with the capital's roadworks program to create a perfect storm of transport chaos, have imposed additional conditions on any stop-work action.
The Transport Workers Union, which represents ACTION Buses' 600 drivers, has won permission from the industrial umpire Fair Work Australia to hold a strike ballot after reaching an impasse in enterprise bargaining negotiations with the company's management.

But the commission, noting the devastating effect that a strike on the buses would have on the city's commuters, ruled on Tuesday that the ACTION staff had to give their bosses and the ACT Government five days' notice of industrial action that would see drivers walk off the job, instead of the usual three days.
FWA senior deputy president Jonathan Hamberger wrote that ACTION's position as ''effectively the only provider of public bus services in the ACT'' meant the community needed more notice than was usual of strike action.
''Indeed, apart from taxis, it [ACTION] is in practice the only provider of public transport in the ACT,'' Mr Hamberger wrote.
''Most other major cities in Australia have more than one significant provider of public transport.''
According to the commission, ACTION transports on average 73,000 people a day, including 21,000 schoolchildren.

For more on this story, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/bus-strike-could-cripple-canberra/1815836.aspx[/l]

[Bus 400]

From the article in today's Canberra Times, the union is opposed to increasing the number of part time drivers & forcing drivers to work weekends.

[The Love Guru]

There is more to than just that Bus 400. The union is against the weekends being rostered as the government has offered no trade off for it. Expecting workers to agree to lose half of their weekends a year for no gain is totally unrealistic.