Go North East drivers to strike indefinitely as pay deal fails

Bus services will be severely disrupted from the weekend after Go North East staff rejected a last-minute pay offer.

About 1,300 drivers and workers from across all six depots will walk out indefinitely from 00:00 BST on Saturday.

Workers rejected a 10.3% pay rise from the company followed by an above-inflation rise next year.

Union Unite said it did not match rates in other parts of the country. Go North East said it was "baffled".

Unite had recommended workers reject the most recent offer in a ballot, which closed on Friday afternoon.

Go North East previously said its offer was "unprecedented" and it had tried to "avoid further disruption".

Members rejected the latest pay offer, which had proposed hourly rates for drivers of £14.15, by 81% on a turnout of 93%.

Unite said a survey showed its members had faced "immense financial pressure", as well as "nightmarish stress at work".

Sixty percent of the nearly 1,000 members who responded to the survey said they had to cut back on essentials such as food and energy, while nearly a fifth reported being forced to skip meals or not being able to pay their rent or mortgage.

Go North East drivers are currently paid £12.83 per hour and Go North West drivers are paid £15.53 per hour, the union said.

Unite regional officer Mark Sanderson said: "We have repeatedly asked Go North East for a fair pay increase and again and again [they] dragged their feet and refused to make a decent pay offer.

"We have drivers pushed to the brink of tiredness, working all hours God sends and skipping meals to make ends meet - yet their employer shows nothing but callous disregard for their wellbeing.

"Go North East have massively misread the strength of feeling from their workers on this issue and Unite will be backing them the whole way."

Go North East business director Ben Maxfield said: "We are baffled. Drivers wanted an above-inflation deal, no changes to conditions and top-of-the market rates.

"We responded to each and every one of those demands, which makes it hard to understand why the union would press ahead with 12 weeks of industrial action."

Drivers and staff at depots in Consett, Hexham, Sunderland, Percy Main, Gateshead and Washington have already taken part in industrial action, bringing buses to a halt between 30 September and 6 October, and 14 October and 20 October.

Passengers have been reacting to the news that the latest offer has been rejected and more strikes are on the way.

Alison Tyson said she felt "terrible" about the indefinite strike action.

Mrs Tyson told the BBC she will have to cancel her hospital appointments and her husband could lose his job.

"Absolutely shocking," she said.

"My husband travels from Consett to North Shields for his work.

"He's been in touch with his bosses and they're not willing to hold his job, because he can't get there.

"He'll end up losing his job."

She added: "It's just outrageous."

Stanley resident Sue Nicholson told the BBC she was "very, very disappointed" at the news.

"That's another week of trying to get about somehow," she said.

"We're just wanting to get back on the road and get to normal," she added.

But Daniel Murray, who travels from Consett to Newcastle and Durham by bus said he supports the strikes.

"They don't get paid enough," he told the BBC.

"If you look at the North West, their pay is much more than the North East."

IT tutor Hannah Allenby, who relies on a Go North East bus to travel from her home in Bowburn to teach in Houghton-le-Spring, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I think it is appalling, it is life-destroying.

"There are people out there in places like Houghton-le-Spring where there are no other public transport services. They won't be able to leave the house for weeks - it is like a reconstruction of Covid.

"I am really, really angry. It is going to affect the economy, it will affect people's physical and mental health. It is not acceptable at all."

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