by a Unite member
As the Socialist goes to press, Unite members at Lea Interchange bus garage in Leyton, east London, are preparing for another two days of strike action on 9 and 10 January over victimisation of reps.
Unite members have recruited and built a vibrant union branch, on the understanding that ‘without strong reps, no one is safe’.
Stagecoach management were clearly shocked at the size and determination of the strike and the day-long picket lines in December, setting up at 3am and still going late into the night.
The strength of the picket line has been backed up with support from other Unite branches, Waltham Forest Trades Council, other unions and the National Shop Stewards Network. The 450+ Unite members at the garage thank supporters for donations which are being used for hardship support, and to provide warmth, shelter, food and drink for the ‘picket welfare station’: “You are keeping us warm, fed, and ready to win”.
Unbelievably, just days before the first Lea Interchange strike in December, Stagecoach Managing director Paul Lynch told the London Assembly: “Safety doesn’t make a profit”! Unite members want to know if this is why victimisation of health and safety reps is happening?
A group of ‘pensioner freedom riders’ travelled the buses first thing in the new year to distribute a trades council leaflet explaining the issues to passengers and appealing for support. The bosses have been inundated with emails from the public, prompting a standard reply that “we have no such problems in our other 12 garages” — which, as far as the Unite members are concerned, is an admission of a toxic culture in the garage. `
Workers know the bosses are under pressure. The managing director posted a letter to drivers’ home addresses, clearly a desperate attempt to create divisions in families. But the workforce is standing strong.