Three fires on London buses this week

A bus caught alight in Mitcham, south-west London at 12.26pm today. It is the third such incident in the capital this week. It took firefighters half an hour to extinguish the blaze on Western Road. It follows fires on buses in Barnet on Monday (after a collision with a car) and Wallington on Wednesday (apparently due to the rear brake seizing).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/29938715
http://www.bbc.co.uk/29913960

London drivers want to strike to end inequality

An overwhelming majority of bus drivers across London’s 17 operators have said they are willing to take strike action to end ‘glaringly unfair’ pay disparities across the capital’s buses in a campaign to secure one London wide agreement covering pay, terms and conditions.
The consultative ballot run by their union, Unite, saw 96 per cent vote in favour of action as frustration mounts over the ‘farce’ of 17 separate pay negotiations.

Collective
In contrast to tube drivers, there is no one collective pay deal for bus drivers in the capital whose pay is negotiated on a company by company basis leading to pay inequality and pay gaps of over £2 an hour for new starters. Starting rates for drivers vary from £9.30 to £11.46 an hour depending on the bus company.
The consultative ballot paves the way for a formal industrial action ballot of London’s bus drivers if the Capital’s bus operators continue with their refusal to establish a collective negotiating forum that covers the pay and conditions for all London’s bus drivers.
http://uniteresist.org