09.02.1995

Beating them at their own game

An article in Socialist Worker (January 28) criticised Bill Morris and the Transport and General Workers Union leadership in the Badgerline bus dispute in Chelmsford for appealing to public opinion rather than for solidarity action - a well know bureaucrat’s cop-out. But it particularly criticised the free bus service the union was running. We spoke to Bill Horslen, one of the sacked workers and a Labour councillor, about the dispute and how the bus service can be used to gain solidarity action

A PRODUCTIVITY deal was negotiated between the TGWU and Badgerline management in 1992 but was rejected by the membership throughout the country.

It was then imposed after the managing director, Robin Orbell, went round the smaller garages threatening them with closure. The deal was eventually accepted by all the garages except Chelmsford, which continued negotiation and then introduced a work to rule in 1993. The duties were eased, but in 1994 even worse ones were imposed.

That triggered a call by the membership for a ballot. The membership voted 74.4% in favour of industrial action. We were all surprised by the high vote in favour of action. It is not a traditionally militant garage although we do have a reputation for not being push-overs.

Management informed us that if we took industrial action we would be repudiating our contract and would be deemed to have dismissed ourselves.

Obviously this infuriated the members who at a mass meeting decided to take immediate strike action and 105 of us were sacked. We had the disciplinaries this Monday, but no one was given their job back.

We’ve been running the dispute since November 18 and are now running ten 17-seat mini-buses. The company has employed new staff but they don’t know the routes or the fares. Some of them have to use maps. The level of service has definitely deteriorated.

We are targeting the most profitable routes and on most of them we are running a 30 minute service. We have our own garage opposite Badgerline, underneath the railway arches. We are doing very well. Robin Orbell says it is not affecting him but he has been to the police to stop us using the bus lanes and is obviously worried. We met the police tonight and they don’t know what action to take, but have said they will stop us using one particular bus lane.

The buses are full and we are looking to get bigger buses. The public in Chelmsford are not getting a good service from Eastern National, Badgerline’s subsidiary, and of course it is very expensive. People are voting with their feet and supporting our service. They wave Eastern National by and get on our buses. Although it is a Tory area we have got a lot of support and a lot of money in the buckets we carry on the buses. People tell us it’s about time workers stood up to the management, because these days everybody feels under threat.

Conditions on the buses have been driven right down as a result of privatisation - and particularly over safety. We are the first to challenge this with our own service and I would think it is being watched by all busworkers, whose conditions have been hammered throughout the country. The rate of pay today on London Transport of £3.60 per hour was applicable in 1960.

Last Friday we went to the Badgerline company in Bristol and met the trade union representatives to look at a way we could introduce a free bus service in Bristol to put further pressure on Badgerline. Chelmsford workers would run the buses. We’re also looking at other areas. We’ve been invited up to the Midlands and to Sheffield later on this month.

We can hit them with the very weapons the privatised companies have been using against each other. Darlington was a classic example where Stagecoach introduced free bus services and drove the local company into receivership. We’re using the same tactics against them.

We’ve been in contact with Badgerline companies throughout the country and Bill Morris has called a national delegate conference on Wednesday February 15 in Transport House where all Badgerline groups should be represented. We are looking for solidarity action from other groups. We hope the conference will decide to hold ballots for industrial action.

We’ve been all round the country prior to the conference to spread the word and convince them that this is a fight for all of us. I think we can win that argument because we are not just talking about our working conditions but trade union rights and the right to strike. Working conditions around the company are atrocious and if Badgerline wins this one they can only get worse.

It is true that running the free bus service has been taking up most of our resources, leaving only a few of us going round the country trying to spread the dispute. But you have to work for solidarity action.

At the moment we are hitting the employer where it hurts most. If we can get the rest of the trade union movement behind us then we can win - no question about it. By running the service we are showing other workers how strong a tactic it is, that we are determined to fight and that we can win with their support.