Wigan: Stagecoach drivers strike against attack on conditions

The pickets were out on Saturday at the Stagecoach depot in Lockett Road, Bryn, when the first of four planned walk-outs took place. That’s because the area’s biggest operator is threatening to scrap existing “hard won” job deals. Stagecoach operates more than 90 bus services - including school contracts ferrying hundreds of pupils - per day.
Company chiefs insist they have contingency plans in place to beat the industrial action, although they concede that a “small number of routes” face a reduced service. This includes drafting in managers with public service licences to drive the routes in place of picketing drivers.
But Unite union officer John Boughton said that although staff regretted potential disruption of passengers and commuters, drivers were determined to maintain existing rostering, allocation and scheduling Stagecoach took on when it brought the Wigan First Group operation recently. Further strikes are planned for October 8 and 14.
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