A pay deal of 11.1% agreed between Arriva North West (ANW) and drivers that are members of the Unite and GMB unions will “place challenges on the sustainability” of the operator’s network, it said after an acrimonious 29-day strike was concluded.
Over 2,000 ANW drivers, the majority represented by Unite, began an indefinite walkout on 20 July. That brought a halt to all services except for some operated from its Macclesfield outstation and a hospital shuttle service on Merseyside.
ANW says it made an offer of 8.5% ahead of the strike commencing, which it described as “generous”. That and subsequent proposals were rejected by union negotiators without being put to a ballot.
The operator is understood to have added one-off payments of £250 or £500 to some of the subsequent offers that were rejected by union negotiators. Unite claimed that earlier proposals involved a reduction in sick pay and the loss of Saturday enhancements, while on 5 August it alleged that ANW has contributed £60m to £560m of “offshore profits” that Unite says Arriva has paid to its parent, Deutsche Bahn, over the past 10 years.
An improved offer of 9.6%, backdated to April, was put to a ballot on 15-16 August but it was rejected by a large margin. The strike was suspended from 18 August after the offer of 11.1% was tabled and recommended to drivers. It was accepted the following day, with the increase backdated to April.
In contrast to ANW’s muted recognition that the dispute had been settled, Unite quickly claimed the award as a “magnificent victory.” The union adds that the agreement will see drivers’ wages at ANW increase by an average of £2,300 per year. Unite members accepted the 11.1% offer by nearly 10 to one, it continues.
Arriva says that it is focused on “minimising [the] impact” of the pay deal on its network sustainability. Earlier it had claimed that Unite and GMB “are fully award of the financial implications that we face and the implications for our customers and local bus networks across the North West.”
GMB says that the 11.1% award takes the hourly pay of its members at ANW to £15, although drivers at some ANW depots are on lower rates.
