Transport bosses meet to plan cuts

As the Con-Dems unleash their savage cuts in today's budget, transport bosses are planning to meet to pass on the pain to transport workers and the communities they serve.
On 20 July transport bosses and a host of consultants will gather at The Future for Local Transport Delivery Conference in London. It will host "a discussion on ways of reshaping service delivery to make every single pound go further”.
The website promises “delegates will have the opportunity to quiz experts and share experiences on overcoming the obstacles to achieving greater efficiencies.” 

It seems that foremost among these obstacles are workers, and union organisation – it is no accident that the conference is sponsored by Bircham Dyson Bell. This is the anti-union legal firm that brought the case against Unite at Metrobus. Their legal challenge to a bus workers’ strike ballot was used to de-rail that year’s pay campaign in London. It happened as up to 14,000 drivers were due to take action in October 2008. Since then attacks on the right to strike have intensified – most obviously at British Airways.