A union spokesperson has announced Christmas strike dates for North East bus drivers in an increasingly bitter ongoing pay dispute with a bus giant.

GMB Union have said Sunderland bus drivers will again be striking against travel giant Stagecoach for ten days over the Christmas period due to an ongoing pay dispute.

The dispute, which is over a package GMB claims constitutes a "real-terms pay cut", has been going on for months and these strikes will see it continue from November to December.

Stuart Gilhespy, a GMB organiser, has accused Stagecoach of offering workers "miserly pay" and placing them in "Dickensian working conditions", something which the company refutes.

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The Northern Echo:

Mr Gilhespy, in a statement yesterday, said: "It’s not clear why Stagecoach is punishing loyal drivers like this. They’re making pots of money, but want workers to survive on miserly pay and Dickensian working conditions. 

“Drivers are doing the only thing they can to make ends meet for their families – withdrawing their labour. 

“Instead of continuing to bring misery to their staff and the people of Sunderland, why won’t Stagecoach get round the table and offer a pay deal to help drivers with the cost of living crisis?” 

GMB announced their first strike would be taking place this weekend on Saturday, 5 November.

Other strike dates include 15 - 19 November, 23 – 24 December, 26- 27 December.

Sunderland bus drivers have already taken six strike days in response to the "real-terms pay cut", which see them offered a 4 per cent pay rise, with 2 per cent to follow later in the year. 

Adding to this, GMB claimed the boss of Stagecoach took home a package worth more than £1.7 million April 2022, while the regional bus services made an operating profit of £58 million in the same period. 

Stagecoach have denied these allegations and accused GMB of "deflecting" from the disruption caused to the community.

In a statement, a Stagecoach spokesperson said: "The GMB are desperately trying to deflect the focus from the damage they are doing to communities in Sunderland.

"Stagecoach executives voluntarily took pay cuts during the pandemic and received no pay increases or bonuses for a number of years.

"At the same time, the jobs of our frontline workers were protected and this year we have been focused on delivering pay increases for bus drivers across the country to reflect the current cost-of-living challenges.

"The profits we make go towards finance costs, taxes which help fund public services, and investment which benefits our customers and local communities, including the introduction of new greener buses."

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The Northern Echo:

Adding to this, Stagecoach have claimed they have made an offer to their Sunderland drivers which would make them the highest paid bus drivers in the region.

"In spite of this, today's announcement regarding further industrial action represents yet another demonstration of GMB attempting to maximise disruption to local communities during an important period for families across Sunderland" they added.

"We would like to assure customers that, if these strike days go ahead, we will be doing everything we can to keep services running to support our local communities, with full service details announced at our earliest opportunity.

"We continue to urge GMB to reopen talks with us to try and agree a realistic pay deal rather than taking further days of action which are impacting our drivers and customers."

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