First South West bus in Penzance, Cornwall. Photo Geoff Sheppard (CC BY-SA 4.0 International).
Over 300 bus workers employed by First South West in depots across Somerset and Cornwall have taken strike action several times since 23 July to defend their pay and conditions.
Parent company First Group recently declared £204 million profits, and paid £800,000 in bonuses to top managers, but has not offered the workers a decent rise.
First SW has tried to undermine the union by making an offer directly to staff, bypassing the union. It has tried to get RMT members to leave the union, imposed changes in terms and conditions, and attacked the workers in the local media.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said, “Our members are furious with company MD Simon Goff for refusing to sit down with our negotiators to hammer out a deal and instead attempting to discredit the union in the media…First South West already have some of the poorest pay rates for bus workers in the region and have added insult to injury with ludicrous comments about their own staff.”